April 6, 2017Podcast

The Real MCIs in Our Systems with Dr. Neal Richmond (part 1)

Dr. Neal Richmond comes on the show this week in part one of a two-part episode to share his outlook on emergency response to disasters and mass casualty incidents (MCIs). He started his work with EMS in New York City when he became associated with FDNY. Then he moved to Louisville, Kentucky to help with medical direction in their system them. Lately, he’s been working with MedStar as a medical director.

Neal is interested in the differences between what we call disasters and what we call MCIs. Some may think they have a lot in common while others would point out the major differences (as Neal does). He starts off talking about the way some EMS responders wait for the “big one” which might occur once in a career, if ever. He proposes that if we look at the way some systems handle everyday, run of the mill EMS calls, that they add up to an MCI call all on their own because the responders drop the ball in some way.

The answer to the proposed question is that we can find answers within the data from these average calls with adverse patient events. When systems do really accurate quality assurance (QA), they have the information they need to identify the areas in need of change within a system. The important thing to do when these deficiencies are noted is to treat them as educational opportunities and not disciplinary opportunities.

If you want to reach out to Dr. Neal Richmond to find about how your system can improve the metrics they track and the QA systems you use, email him at [email protected].

Make sure you join us for part two of this informative episode next week.

Check out this episode and if you have questions, leave them here or on our new disaster podcast Facebook Group.

Paragon Brings “The Experience”

Paragon Medical Education Group specializes in bringing what they call “The Experience” to jurisdictions around the country. They bring together police, fire, EMS, and hospital teams to train together and learn what to expect from each diverse group in the response team so that each knows what to expect from the other and how to back the other groups up. Visit Paragon’s site at ParagonMedicalGroup.com for more information on how this can be brought into your system.