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The Chronicles of EMS – Day 3?? Who knows, I’m flying

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My goodness I’ve got to get into this room! That was a long set we’ve just had. Oh yea, Mark’s in the building so I had better check the lock on the door. It’s locked… good. I shouldn’t have had so much coffee in preparation for the talk I just had. Was I nervous? A bit maybe… I feel silly about it though. After all, I was really just shooting the “breeze” with some people who have become good friends of mine over the last year or so and I honestly feel pretty comfortable being in front of the community that’s popped up around the Chronicles of EMS.  

Yes I was talking about what the Frumpydumple crowd calls the “water closet” and I had just gotten done filming Episode #1 of “Chronicles of EMS – A Seat at the Table” with an amazing panel of guests. I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed being here in San Francisco to watch this all take place, I can’t really put into words how much I have enjoyed meeting the people I’ve gotten to meet, and I just wouldn’t do the feeling of inspiration I’ve gotten any justice if I were to put it into static black and white words on this page. For you to know how I feel about this I’ll just have to use an analogy.

Picture that you’ve been laboring in a tunnel for years, digging as fast as you could every day you were down there. You’re passionate about your digging but you don’t really know if you’re ever going to get anywhere before you run out of steam. You dig and dig and dig… Then one day you feel like you can’t dig any more… not even one more shovel full of dirt… You’re tired, cold, hungry, and cranky and it feels like eons since you’ve seen the sun… Finding Herculean strength you tell yourself that this shovel full of dirt may be the one that finally counts, so you dig the shovel into the dirt and…

Break through into an underground lake that fills the tunnel with water and sweeps you away.

And just when you find you’re about to drown you start a blog and find out that there’s people out there that will throw you a lifeline. You reach out to them and find yourself at a television premier in San Francisco having the time of your life.

So um, yea. That’s how it is. See why I said that I couldn’t do it any justice?

I was here to watch the show and I’m still here writing this from my hotel room. I have to say this: We all knew that Mark and Justin were caring, competent paramedics who are fantastic at what they do. It wasn’t really a shock to me to see them portrayed in the video as just that. No camera could hide how much they care about this stuff and it wouldn’t be possible to hide how committed to the cause of furthering emergency medical care around the world as they are. I know them, they’re really, truly good people and I’ll vouch for them. What impressed me, nay, amazed me the most was the quality of the camera work and the production of the film. I was quite literally blown away by the superb quality of the production. Hats off to Chris Eldridge and Ted Setla… You guys honestly blew right past my preconceptions and delivered a product that was way beyond my expectations. I mean, I knew that it was going to be good… I just did not expect the quality to be so high. I had high expectations and you blew past them. That’s solid work guys. I know that there were many behind the scenes that I don’t know all of the names of to thank properly, but rest assured that I am thoroughly impressed by the class act that you have developed here.

So what I am saying is: Thank you. Thank you for the work you have done to further our profession and emergency medical care around the world. I am happy and downright honored to have played a small part in it and I cannot wait to see the heights that you all reach with this endeavor.

You guys rock.

So tonight, I am frankly having way too much fun here with my wife over Valentine’s day hanging out with the Chronicles Crowd to spend any more time on this computer. I’ve met a ton of great people, all of which I will dish about (Mwa Ha Ha ha!) in a later post. But tonight is about fun, and off I go.

Here’s some suggested reading:

Http://www.setlafilms.com – Ted Setla’s Production Company

Http://www.LevelZeroMovie.com – The Level Zero Movie (I have a signed copy!!)

Http://www.ChroniclesOfEMS.com – The page for #CoEMS

MsParamedic’s article on #CoEMS – Great Meeting you!

EMS1.com ‘s article on #CoEMS

David Konig’s article on #CoEMS

FireGeezer’s Article on #CoEMS – Really? Johnny and Roy?? Well, maybe…

Fire Daily’s article on #CoEMS – Bromance indeed

 

And Just to Enhance the Social Media Experience – I put out a tweet looking for posts that referenced the meetup this weekend. Here are the ones I’ve gotten so far:

- From @FirstDueMedic - http://gatesofintegrity.blogspot.com/2010/02/are-we-ready.html

- From @ssgjbroyles - http://1union801.blogspot.com/2010/02/chronicles-of-ems.html

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Posted by on February 13, 2010 • Filed under: Ambulance, EMS, ems 2.0, EMS Blog, EMS blogosphere, EMS Conference, ems education, EMS ethics, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Motivation, EMS pep talk, EMS Topics, Paramedic
  • http://www.999medic.com Medic999

    You couldnt do it any Justice??

    I am sitting here at Justins house and just read out your digging analogy to Justin and Kim. At the end we all just went Wow!!

    Chris, you are part of this now, and there is no escape…..Muuu Ha ha ha ha

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/PM4VXU5VWRBH5JU3OSXOGPWK7E P

    This whole EMS 2.0 thing seems to be a movement back to the days when doctors actually went out to peoples' houses. I think it's a good movement, but I don't think the money is there for it to be sustainable. The insurance providers are going to resist paying for any new kind of in the field care. I know from my contact with local volunteer Fire and EMS services that insurance companies are no longer paying for services that are rendered to the customer/patient by these mostly volunteer organizations. I think it is needed for emergency services, especially EMS, to be moving in a more customer/patient centric direction, but I don't see anyone stepping up to pay for it.

    Case in point, my job as a 911 operator and emergency services dispatcher has always increased in workload and as populations continue to grow it always will increase in workload. Yet my boss still continues to threaten us with reducing wages and manpower while in the same breath mandating us to provide more services. I cannot imagine that this is not happening everywhere else in the emergency services field, less pay, less manpower, ever-increasing workload while offering more services. What EMS 2.0 seems to be proposing is adding more services in EMS systems that are already being pushed near their breaking point by ever-increasing call volume and continual budget cuts and that's not even touching on ever-increasing expectations from the public.

    Also, as a professional dispatcher/911 operator I am curious to see how the triage side of things would work while on the wire. Medic999 said something about a 111 number they were either using or going to be using for such non-emergent medical response requests and I am curious as to how that would be integrated into your standard issue, multi-municipality call center or if it is an entirely separate service staffed by a completely different professional. If it's a separate service it sounds like a decent part time job for a retired RN or PA.

    Truly,
    K

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/PM4VXU5VWRBH5JU3OSXOGPWK7E P

    This whole EMS 2.0 thing seems to be a movement back to the days when doctors actually went out to peoples' houses. I think it's a good movement, but I don't think the money is there for it to be sustainable. The insurance providers are going to resist paying for any new kind of in the field care. I know from my contact with local volunteer Fire and EMS services that insurance companies are no longer paying for services that are rendered to the customer/patient by these mostly volunteer organizations. I think it is needed for emergency services, especially EMS, to be moving in a more customer/patient centric direction, but I don't see anyone stepping up to pay for it.

    Case in point, my job as a 911 operator and emergency services dispatcher has always increased in workload and as populations continue to grow it always will increase in workload. Yet my boss still continues to threaten us with reducing wages and manpower while in the same breath mandating us to provide more services. I cannot imagine that this is not happening everywhere else in the emergency services field, less pay, less manpower, ever-increasing workload while offering more services. What EMS 2.0 seems to be proposing is adding more services in EMS systems that are already being pushed near their breaking point by ever-increasing call volume and continual budget cuts and that's not even touching on ever-increasing expectations from the public.

    Also, as a professional dispatcher/911 operator I am curious to see how the triage side of things would work while on the wire. Medic999 said something about a 111 number they were either using or going to be using for such non-emergent medical response requests and I am curious as to how that would be integrated into your standard issue, multi-municipality call center or if it is an entirely separate service staffed by a completely different professional. If it's a separate service it sounds like a decent part time job for a retired RN or PA.

    Truly,
    K

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