EMS Week Guest Commentary

5/15/2016

Hunter Brown, D.O.
Medical Director – Emergency Department
Physicians Regional Medical Center

If there is one phone number known to every adult – and even most children – in America, it is 9-1-1. Urban or rural, English-speaking or not, every citizen knows that in an emergency, you dial those three digits and expert help will come.

Help will come in the form of the EMTs, firefighters, and paramedics who provide emergency care to anyone and everyone who calls. This week we pause to remember that medical care often takes place outside of the safe, insulated and well-lit hospital environment. Emergency care can start in a patient's home or place of work. It can start on a busy sidewalk, in the tangled remains of an SUV, or down a muddy embankment in the rain. It can start at the beach, or other public places. The help never takes a holiday, and it arrives without regard for time of day, weather or safety conditions. The dedicated first responders provide lifesaving services 24/7/365, and are the vital link between patients before they arrive at the hospital, and the doctors, nurses and other clinical professionals in the Emergency Department. We depend upon the both the medical skills, and communication from the field with our teams in the emergency rooms.

This year, National EMS week (May 15th – 21st) has a fitting theme of Called to Care. It’s also being celebrated as the 50th anniversary of the modern EMS system and its 50 years marked by great change and innovation. Paramedics can now transmit EKGs from the ambulance to our emergency rooms using the LifeNet System. This lifesaving technology allows for faster activation of the cardiac catheterization lab and saves valuable time when it matters most. Physicians Regional – Pine Ridge has earned full accreditation with PCI as a Chest Pain Center by the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care, an institute of the American College of Cardiology. This means the hospital has demonstrated, among many other criteria, integrating the Emergency Department with the local Emergency Medical System.

This week we celebrate the people who make the system strong. Please join all of us at Physicians Regional Healthcare System in thanking our local EMS providers and those across the country who are Called to Care in a career that demands passion, purpose and heart. Our community is grateful for their dedicated service, and our teams at both hospitals are extremely proud to work with them for patient care! We wish all of our area’s First Responders a very happy National EMS Week.

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