120912 APEMS Northeast RAC Committee Meeting

120912 APEMS Northeast RAC Committee Meeting Charles McMahan, John Cunningham, Rick Cheverie, Theresa Cousins, Cheri Volta, Joseph Kennedy, Eddie Moreside, Steve O'Malley, Peter Larlee, Joe Kellner, Brent Melvin, Robert Posick, Myles Block, David Buccello, Jonnathan Busko, Dan Batsie, Rick Petrie I. Call to Order A. Chair David Buccello called the meeting to order, Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 4:05 p.m. II. Review of Minutes A. The committee reviewed the minutes for the June 2012 committee meeting. The minutes were approved unanimously as written on the motion by John Cunningham (seconded by Brent Melvin). III. State Committees Update A. Maine EMS Board 1. The draft of the new EMS rules are on the governor's desk waiting for approval. The rules are on hold until approval occurs. The APEMS Bangor will host a regional rules committee meeting and will notify all services as soon as possible. B. Community Paramedicine 1. A law was needed to implement the community paramedicine program and was passed on August 30, 2012. 12 pilot projects projects will be accepted by the state. Rick Petrie and Dan Batsie are coordinating the pilot project effort and will be accepting the first twelve pilot project proposals. Six have been submitted in and accepted, leaving six available for submission. If any services wish to make a submission, they can do so by contacting Rick Petrie. OJ Doyle and Brennan has advocated for possible reimbursement. C. MDPB 1. Protocol Revisions a. We are in a two year protocol revision cycle. Everyone is invited to participate in the revision. 2. Medication Shortages a. There have not been many recent issues and any experienced have been sporadic. 3. Drug Box Procedures a. Anything that is non-narcotic can be pulled from a drug box, but each service must have an agreement with the pharmacy to do so. b. Services are required to receive a sealed drug box from the pharmacy and not crack it. If services wish to know the content, they should ask their pharmacy to allow a service member to observe the packing of the drug box. D. State Exam Committee 1. There was no meeting held this past period. 2. Drexell White is working from home half the time due to an injury. 3. The full fledge changes to NREMT standards became effective July 1, 2012. E. State Education Committee 1. The clinical behavior objectives are being revised. The standards are moving away from hours for each clinical site to outcomes. 2. CEH categories are changing. The plan is to have a three year transition. The categories are shifting toward the NREMT category standards. No major changes are expected as we are already aligned. We are awaiting a draft of the categories. F. State QA/QI 1. Aspirin Audit a. There were multiple email campaigns to retrieve the data from services. The compliance data received back is being compiled and statistics for state, region, and service will be available next Wednesday, September 19th. This audit will address whether aspirin wasn't administered or just not document. (chart handout) b. Any service that hasn't submitted their audit can still do so by sending data to Rick Petrie c. There will be a PowerPoint educational program available to all services and posted on MEMSEd. IV. Regional Initiatives A. Elections 1. Elections for the positions of Northeast RAC Chair and Vice-Chair were held. David Boccello received 11 votes for the position of Chair. Myles Block received 10 votes for the position of Vice Chair. Both accepted the nomination. The committee approved the results on the motion from Theresa Cousins, seconded by John Cunningham. B. Regional QA/QI 1. Quarterly Audits a. Kerri Pomelow conducted an audit regarding altered mental status which would show if glucometer checks were implemented and documented. One of the issues regarding documentation is the fact that the results are to be entered on the run report in four places. Jon Powers is working on getting the run sheet to to auto populate when the information is entered once. This audit was done by sub regional groups. Education stressing documentation will be available for services. An audit will take place in the future as follow up. b. The next audit will address 12-lead usage to see if we are hitting the 10-minute standard. We are trying to get a hospital representative to go through 12-lead information and report back to EMS c. With more data coming in, numbers start to matter d. The committee expressed concerns regarding holding the of the sub regional meetings during the day would not get as many attending. Rick Petrie reported that in the past there were attendance issues with evening meetings. e. Meeting notifications will be broadcast via MEMSRR. C. Seminar/Comedy Night 1. Seminar plans are coming along. The seminar information will be distributed in poster form instead of brochure. 2. The keynote speaker is Dr. David King of the U.S. Army and Massachusetts General Hospital. His keynote address will take place Saturday, November 10th from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. 3. We have a new online registration program. 4. Comedy night will take place on Wednesday night. This will be open to the public with Camden First Aid and another service providing local advertising. 5. The MCOT conference will take place on Wednesday, November 8th 6. The Maine Cardio conference will take place on Thursday, November 9th. 7. The Maine Ambulance Association conference will take place on Friday, November 10th. 8. Veteran's Day is on Sunday this year. Saturday's lunch will be provided free of charge for active duty veterans. D. Education 1. Licensure Offerings a. The second largest paramedic class is now underway in Bangor. b. Myles Block is instructing the AEMT couse in Bangor. c. EMT courses offered this fall: Bangor day and Bucksport d. An EMR course is offered in Plymouth 2. Education survey to services will be offered to provide feedback 3. Regional Education Committee a. There will be a formal advisory committee which is looking to be inclusive and searches for voices. This committee will meet twice a year. E. Items from the Council 1. Concerns from member agencies a. The council is not doing much advising. What does APEMS want from the committee? (1) The committee was informed that APEMS would like a forum that gives services an opportunity to express their needs and what we may do to assist. We also want to know what we are doing that may be hindering services. 2. How do we get information regarding this committee out the the general public? We would like to let services know this is an open committee meeting. a. Announcements of upcoming committee meetings will be posted on Facebook b. An APEMS web page will list approved minutes to committee meetings c. An APEMS web form for comments and suggestions will be set up that will send all comments to Myles Block and David Buccello d. A web cast or live chat event will be scheduled regularly which will allow services to chat and pose questions to either Rick Petrie or Dan Batsie e. RSS feed or list serve on APEMS activities or classes 3. Communication with service chiefs: Should there be secondary contacts for all services? V. Meeting Adjournment A. Cheri Volta moved to adjourn, seconded by John Cunningham. The motion was accepted and the meeting adjourned at 5:20 p.m.