Today is worldwide suicide prevention day. You can find more information from the CDC’s Suicide Prevention Website.

Also check out this post in the Everyday EMS Tips archives about talking to patients in crisis.

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Only you can reduce the prevalence of self-reported obesity in your state. These CDC maps compare data from 2000, 2005, and 2009. Remember as EMS professionals we reflect the world around us. I actually suspect that the prevalence of obesity among EMS professionals is as high or even greater than the communities we serve. What do you think?

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Unprepared is a cautionary fictional tale from Jim Rush, a long-term emergency planner for healthcare organizations. Jim and his co-author, D.A. Ramsey, have written an account of how several simultaneous incidents devastated a few American cities and overwhelm local, regional, and national capacities to provide healthcare, other community services, and governance.

Jim drew on his work experience in the US Air Force, US Surgeon General’s Office, HRSA, CDC, and private sector to highlight the poor planning that is currently in place to rapidly mass evacuate sick and injured patients from disaster scenes. Jim and I discussed the minimal progress that has taken place since Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Ike.

In our interview Jim discusses his hope that the book, by exploring the ongoing impacts of national tragedy, inspires planners and policy makers to create serious plans. He told me, “I have a major concern that the health system is not learning lessons to evacuate patients and save as many lives as possible during a major disaster.”

We also discussed that a short fall of many training exercises is a focus on quick and tidy happy endings. In reality, incidents usually draw out for weeks, months, and even years. According to Jim the “difference between a disaster and a catastrophe is often the capacity of emergency managers to request help with patient evacuation and dispersal.”

Unprepared is meant to be a provocative book that will get people thinking. Do you think a fiction cautionary tale can stimulate planning? Have other fictional media, like the movie “The Day After”, impacted you as an emergency responder to take action?

Unprepared is available from Amazon.com and JVR Health Readiness. Links discussed in this episode of the medical author chat:

• DebbieRamsey.com
• JVR Health Readiness Inc.
• Email Jim Rush

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Here I go again.

Paramedic training did not prepare me for the increasing number of patients I encounter with kidney failure. According to the CDC in 2000 more than 26 million American adults had Chronic Kidney Disease. Did you know that high blood pressure and diabetes are the leading causes of chronic kidney disease? I just learned that fact and many others from these two websites.

World Kidney Day

CDC Chronic Kidney Disease Initiative

A RapidCE.com CE Lesson, from flight nurse and ICU RN, Joe Redding introduces assessment and treatment of patients with kidney failure. There is an ALS and BLS version available. Contact us for information on how your organization can access the content in this CECBEMS approved CE lesson.

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You have your flu shot already. Right? What about your family, friends, neighbors, and vendors?

This week, January 10-16, 2010 is National Influenza Vaccination Week. According to the CDC “Each year during National Influenza Vaccination Week, the importance of influenza vaccination and the need for persons to receive vaccination throughout the entire October–May influenza season are highlighted. Influenza vaccination is the best way to prevent influenza and its severe complications.”

While a lot of attention has been given to H1N1; influenza, the seasonal flu, impacts and kills many more people. Vaccination with basic prevention steps like:

• Handwashing
• Catching your cough/sneeze in your elbow
• Cleaning reusable equipment
• Wearing appropriate PPE

Are essential in minimizing the spread and impact of influenza.

Learn more about National Influenza Vaccination Week and visit the resources available at Flu.gov.

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Are you a pro football fan? Like me you have certainly noticed the increased attention to the occurance and consequences of traumatic brain injury in professional football players.

For several years the CDC has been promoting increased awareness of traumatic brain injury (what we used to call concussions) in youth sports. Their efforts have focused on athletes, coaches, parents, and healthcare providers. EMS professionals frequently provide stand-by medical care at athletic events and need to be aware of how to assess the occurrence of traumatic brain injury.

The CDC prominently displays these fast facts at its page about Traumatic Brain Injury:

• A concussion is a brain injury and all are serious.
• Most concussions occur without loss of consciousness.
• Recognition and proper response to concussions when they first occur can help prevent further injury or even death.

Traumatic Brain Injury is not just a problem of young athletes. Geriatric patients are also at high risk of concussions from slips and falls. With slower reaction times a geriatric patient might not be able to extend a hand when they fall leading to their head striking the ground before any other body part and taken the full brunt of the fall. When assessing a geriatric patient look for signs that other body parts may have absorbed some of the impact of a fall like abrasions on the palms, bruises to the hips or shoulders, or abrasions to the knees. If the only sign of trauma is a head wound after a fall it is likely that the full force of their fall was to their head.

Learn more about geriatric traumatic brain injuries in a CDC study on the topic.

Traumatic brain injury is also the signature wound of the Iraq war. Soldiers, better protected then ever from body armor, are surviving from significant blast trauma, but are left with the immediate and lifelong impact of severe traumatic brain injury. This NPR story reports that 1 in 5 soldiers are returning from Iraq with a traumatic brain injury.

Finally, you can earn CECBEMS approved CE credit from several lessons related to this topic that are available to RapidCE.com and CentreLearn users. Check out these lessons:

• Traumatic Brain Injury Assessment and Treatment
• Geriatric Patient Assessment
• C-Spine Injuries in Athletics (this is a two part lesson that primarily focuses on football related injuries)

This is the 14th post in the Everyday EMS Tips series 31 days of continuing education.

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Free help for quitting smoking is available by calling 800-QUIT-NOW (800-784-8669) or visiting http://www.smokefree.gov.

Everyday EMS Tips readers today is the Great American Smokeout. If you smoke today is your day to stop. I am here to support, encourage, and cajole you to change your life today. You will feel better (eventually), have more money, have more oxygen capacity, and live longer.

A few facts from the CDC MMWR about smoking, “approximately 46 million adults (20.6% of the population) still smoke (1), and every day, another 1,000 young persons become new smokers (2). Annually, smoking results in 440,000 deaths and $193 billion in health-care costs and lost productivity.”

What else can I do to support your efforts to quit smoking?

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Today is World COPD Day. Everyday EMS Tips frequently encounter patients with respiratory distress or failure secondary to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This is from the CDC MMWR report, “The aim of World COPD Day is to raise awareness about COPD and improve COPD care throughout the world.”

To celebrate World COPD try some of these Everyday EMS Tips:

1. If you smoke stop. Smoking is the most significant risk factor for COPD. CDC quit smoking page.

2. If you know someone that smokes encourage them to quit.

3. Go outside and enjoy some fresh air. Expand your lungs and use your heart on a walk, run, bike, swim, or ski.

4. Review your local COPD treatment protocols and the medications and interventions you are authorized to use.

5. If you don’t have CPAP yet for your ALS or BLS service send a friendly email to your service director and medical director and ask when CPAP will be part of your protocols for respiratory distress.

6. Prepare and deliver a COPD prevention program. Find education resources and more from the COPD Learn More Breathe Better Campaign.

7. Imagine what life would be like on a 30 foot oxygen tubing tether. Quit smoking.

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Everyday EMS Tips readers weigh in on the responder bias of this question, “Would you say [child]‘s health in general was excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?”

In 2006 more than 17% of children were obese (CDC youth obesity site). Good health is in the eye of the describer. I am pretty skeptical about the ability of parents to describe their child’s health as good or excellent. How about you?

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This week, October 19-25, is National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week. According the CDC web page about lead, “Lead is a highly toxic metal that at one time was an ingredient in many household products, including lead-based paints manufactured before 1978. The primary source of lead exposure among U.S. children is the lead-based paint and lead-contaminated dust and soil found in and around old, deteriorating buildings.

Today, childhood lead poisoning is considered to be the most preventable environmental disease of young children, yet an estimated 310,000 U.S. children have elevated blood lead levels. A simple blood test can prevent a lifetime spoiled by the irreversible damage caused by lead poisoning.”

EMS Professionals have a unique position among all healthcare workers in that they see patients and their families in their homes. Just like we can play a role in fall prevention we can also play a role in lead poisoning prevention. Lead was used in paint in homes built before 1978. This paint and lead contaminated dust are top hazards for children. Lead poisoning prevention tips are available from the CDC.

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