BOCA FIRE RESCUE NET - City of Boca Raton

Page 5
EMS
By: Mike O’Neil
Division Chief
ALS Competition
Our Advanced Life Support Competition
Teams placed First in a competition
in New York, and placed Second
and Third at the Flagler County ALS
Competition last month. The City of
Boca Raton’s web site (http://
www.ci.boca-raton.fl.us/fire/pdf/
CompetitionResults.pdf) lists competition
results from 1981 to the present.
The next competition is at Fire Rescue
East this January.
Medical Protocol Revision
The EMS Division will be releasing
new medical protocols in November.
We are adding several new medications
and the new American Heart Association
recommendations have been added
to the protocols. Along with the revision,
we have completely revised the
format of all EMS related forms, vehicle
inventories, created reference guides
and operating instructions for major
equipment. All of these will be available
on our network and on the laptop
computers.
Patient Follow Up Program
Boca Raton Regional Hospital has been
updating the EMS Division on our most
critical patients that are transported to
BRRH. Delray Medical Center is also
providing data outcome for patients.
This process is accomplished using a
secure electronic file exchange. We
have received requests from other agencies
around the State who are interested
about our methods. This program was
implemented as part of our Quality Assurance
Program.
BOCA FIRE RESCUE
Training & Safety
By: Joe Majhess
Division Chief
As we put Halloween behind us, we are
all eagerly anticipating the holiday season
over the next few months. Whether
it be to share a meal, the exchange of
gifts or any other special occasion, coming
together to celebrate with family and
friends is a blessing we can all enjoy.
In the last month, I attended training at
the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg,
Maryland. Course discussion focused
on how we, as a Fire Rescue service,
can reduce risks in our community.
In conducting research to prepare for
attending this training, I discovered
some interesting facts and statistics that
are worth sharing.
In the United States, the leading cause
of death for persons ages 1 – 44 is unintentional
injuries. Injuries stemming
from Motor Vehicle Crashes is the number
one cause of death in approximately
98% of these cases. In fact, the industry
has gone as far as reclassifying these
events as “crashes” rather than
“accidents.” Why? Because in a majority
of cases, these incidents are not accidents
at all, they are “PREVENTABLE”
incidents. Other leading causes include
drowning, fire/burns, suffocation, poisoning
and falls. In these incidents as
well, a majority of cases are preventable.
I cannot tell you how many times in my
20 years of responding to people’s
tragedies that I have heard the victim’s
family members express, through the
hysteria, tears and sadness, a desire to
have done things differently in the
events leading up to their devastating
loss. Folks, something as simple as putting
a seatbelt or bike helmet on can
mean the difference between life and
death. Not allowing ourselves to be
distracted when performing tasks such
as driving or supervising children
greatly improves our chances of avoiding
“preventable” incidents.
Sadly, in most cases, humans must experience
a “significant emotional event”
in order to change a negative behavior
or habit. I share this information with
you to raise your awareness of just
some of the many hazards present in
your everyday travels and educate you
on the risks they pose to your health
and safety and that of your family
members. Will this be sufficient to
motivate you to make the positive
changes necessary to reduce your exposure
to these hazards and risks or will
you, like many, wait to experience your
own personal “significant emotional
event?”
With these thoughts in mind, I ask you
to observe your actions in the course of
just one day and count the number of
times you have the power to make a
choice that could decrease the exposure
of hazards and risks to you and/or those
around you (family, friends, coworkers,
the public). I believe the results will
surprise you.
In closing, I learned a lot in my recent
training about reducing risk in our community.
While the Fire Rescue Service
can play a major role in educating the
public on hazard awareness and ways to
reduce their risks, only the public’s
willingness to act on the information
provided can lead to a reduction in the
number of deaths due to unintentional
injuries. Together, we can all play a
part in reducing the risks in our community.
We can all make choices that
not only increase our safety, but also
foster good habits in the youth that look
to us for examples.
I would like to take this opportunity to
recognize and thank Ms. Cindy Cevallos
for all her assistance with the research
conducted on emergency reporting
data in the City of Boca Raton for
this project.