the Project is the most ambitious ground level comparison of EMS in the history of the profession.
In the past ideas were spread by managers and supervisors at conferences and at tables, discussing their successes, hopes and strategies. On rare occasions visiting managers were offered short ride alongs with hand chosen crews to support the concepts put forth in their plan.
Not anymore. Now, with the popularity of social networking and the desire for care takers to learn and share ideas in real time, EMS concepts are flying around the world in seconds. Imagine a tip loaded onto twitter in England is read by a blogger in Australia who passes it along to a Paramedic in New Hampshire who uses it to save a life. All in the span of 1 hour. This is happening now, at a time when most Departments and agencies are just beginning to update their websites, let alone set their PIO up with social accounts to spread accurate information faster than the traditional media can file a story on their website. Imagine a single update to a department blog that goes out to tens of thousands of followers on their phones to avoid an emergency area, or to shelter in place. All from the comfort of a keyboard.
In this new electronic community two bloggers struck up a conversation about how their systems are different and alike and how each may learn a bit from the other. One responding in a car, the other in a fire engine. One with advanced pathways and resources to direct folks away from the ER, the other with no choice but an ALS transport.
This is where the Project was born, in the comments section of 999medic.com and the happymedic.com. 2 Paramedics, in completely different systems, with different tools and guidelines curious about how what they do could be so drastically different when they see many of the same medical conditions.
A friendship was quickly formed with emails, comments, twitters and facebook updates discussing EMS and it’s future. “We should meet,” one said. “Absolutely!” said the other.
So in the fall of 2009, November to be exact, Mark Glencorse, Paramedic Team Leader with the North East Ambulance Service will be a guest of the San Francisco Fire Department to see EMS delivered from a fire model.
Then I will travel to the UK and experience Mark’s NHS system to explore the fast response model as well as an exciting new program for eliminating the need to default to an ALS transport to the hospital.
So follow along, there will be pages and pages of thoughts, observations, comments and ideas at both sites. Grab a fresh cup of coffee and join us as we hope to change EMS for the better on both sides of the pond.
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We are now being filmed for the pilot episode of the Chronicles of EMS, a new EMS reality series produced by Ted Setla of Setla Films and Level Zero fame. Check out http://chroniclesofems.com for more including behind the scenes footage from the streets of San Francisco.
The updates begin: Here is Mark’s first report from the first leg of the Project, and Here is mine. You can find links to the next posts on their respective blogs.
