Minutes 2-23-2022

Manitowoc County EMS First Responders with County Medical Directors

Medical Directors Present:

Dr. Scott Kunkel - Kiel Medical Director

Dr. Suzanne Martens - Valders Medical Director

Dr. Sarah DiMezza - Manitowoc Medical Director

Dr. Chris Painter - Two Rivers Medical Director

Dr. Laura Vogel-Schwartz - Mishicot Medical Director

First Responder agencies:

Branch

Cleveland

Collins

St. Nazianz

Newton

Silver Creek

Francis Creek

Kellnersville

Two Creeks

Reedsville--excused

Meeting called to order at 1902 hours

Introduction of County Medical Directors

Bill Manis briefly went over some of the goals for the meeting

◦          Share Education

◦          Regional Training/Drills

◦          Team Concept from Dispatch to First Responders to Ambulance to ER Staff

◦          Excellent Patient care in Manitowoc County

Medical Directors discuss with the group on how these goals may be met and why we are meeting. 

◦          Chris- Purpose of meeting-

◦                     March plan deadline to EMS section-All EMS agencies need to review their EMS plan, Roster of members, area medical control hospitals and medical director.  The plans need to be updated and filed with the state no later than March 31, 2022.  This is an opportunity the state is taking for agencies to review their protocols and rosters and make changes and updates.

◦                     Offer regional approach to EMS in Manitowoc County-Discussion on how and who might be the best medical director for each agency.  It is being suggested that the EMR (first responder agency) consider alignment with the ambulance service & medical director that they do most of their calls with.  First responder agencies who wish to continue with Dr Nelson should contact him this week to see if he plans to continue with their service or change medical directors. 

  Discussion of EMR agencies using the new State Protocols vs what they have now for protocols.  The medical directors would like ALL EMS agencies to align their protocols as much as possible for ease of training and education and patient care.   Universal protocols through the County would make things easy to deliver education and do QA and QI.

◦                     Introduce Video Training and get suggested topics from the group-Medical directors have been discussing how training can be presented across the county.  Video base learning is one option they are considering for now.   Manitowoc County EMS Association, via Mark Knier (the Association webmaster) has volunteered to place videos on county website to see if the current website can handle this.

◦          Scott- Talk about Regional Training and Drills-Would like to see a couple drills per year bring everyone together or at least by ambulance region.

◦          All - Talk about Triage Tuesdays and how County Medical Directors are meeting and discussing what is best moving forward for EMS and Hospital ERs working together.    – Triage Tuesdays will begin in March.  The procedure will be as follows.  A triage tag will be applied to a patient by the first responder agency, and they will begin to collect information for the tag until ambulance arrives.  Ambulance crew will keep the tag with the patient and the first responder agency will be given a new blank tag.  While enroute to the hospital ambulance crews will continue to fill out tag.  Once at the hospital the ambulance crew will turn the tag over to the ER staff and the ER staff will give the ambulance crew a new tag.  Tags will be reviewed by medical directors and a report given to the EMS association on how the project is progressing.  A couple of caveats:  1.  Patient care need to come first.  If Patient is critical a red tag might be all the information that may be updated on the tag.  Dr. Martens recommended that ambulance personnel develop a brief statement as to why the ambulance crew is getting information and writing on the tags.  An example maybe: We are collecting information on this tag as a training exercise that is evaluated by or medical directors, so we are more prepared in case of a mass casualty incident in our county.  These tags are protected by HIPAA.

◦          Make sure each first responder agency has a medical director – First responder agencies wishing to move forward with a new medical director should send an email to Teresa and she will forward that information on to Bill Manis who in turn have a medical Director return a call to discuss how to proceed with a new medical director.  EMR services may also reach out to any

◦          medical director for a conversation.

Follow up:  Future meeting with the medical directors will be in conjunction with Manitowoc County EMS Association meeting also to share information and begin to strategize new ways to vitalize EMS care in Manitowoc County.  Theresa, the EMS Association president, offered the EMS Association as that is a venue that exists, it has a meeting schedule and locations, and it’s focus fits the very description of what the goals of this committee is and wants to accomplish.

Next meeting:  Wednesday, March 23 at 7:00 p.m. at the Kiel Fire Station. 

Active Shooter Training:  Coming April 6, 2022 at 6:00-10:00 p.m. in Kiel.  More information to come.

Meeting adjourned at 2000 hours