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“State EMS Offices Respond to the Opioid Epidemic” Published by COSSAP

March 30, 2023

NASEMSO has partnered with the Center for Health and Justice (CHJ) at the Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC) to support and publicize efforts of the EMS community in tackling the overdose crisis. The partnership has resulted in the production of informative briefs and nationwide webinars reaching audiences not familiar with the role of EMS and their capabilities in responding to the addiction epidemic. As a result of this partnership, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP) published a March 2023 article on its resource page titled, State Emergency Medical Services Offices Respond to the Opioid Epidemic.  This resource outlines several approaches undertaken by state EMS offices in collaboration with local EMS agencies to address the problem at its core. In addition, NASEMSO co-produced a webinar with COSSAP titled, How EMS is Impacting the Lives of Overdose Patients in North Carolina. In this webinar, State EMS Medical Director Dr. Tripp Winslow describes the EMS medication-assisted “bridge” programs developed in several countywide EMS agencies.

For more information about NASEMSO’s engagement in opioid and SUD response, contact Mary Hedges at hedges@nasemso.org and/or visit the Opioid and SUD Ad Hoc Committee.

NASEMSO Announces a New Cooperative Agreement Project

March 23, 2023

The National Association of State Emergency Medical Services Officials (NASEMSO) is excited to announce the start of a new cooperative agreement project, funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Emergency Medical Services, to take critical, initial steps to improve the safety of children transported by ambulance.

This 15-month project will focus on drafting crash test methodology intended to evaluate the safety of commercially available devices used to secure children in the back of an ambulance.  Test methods will be drafted for three unique transport situations:

1. supine pediatric patients (i.e., laying on their back on an adult sized cot);
2. seated pediatric patients or child passengers; and
3. supine neonatal patients.

This project is the first phase of a three-step process to develop, validate, and publish these three new child restraint test methods. This project will be completed collaboratively with industry experts (product manufacturers and ambulance builders), EMS clinicians, crash test laboratories, and federal and state partners. Once the test methods have been drafted, NASEMSO hopes to support the next phase of the project: crash testing of pediatric restraint devices currently available in the U.S. market. When funded, the crash testing phase will be used to both validate the draft test methods and evaluate existing and newly designed pediatric transport products.

The Technical Project Lead is Jim Green, who recently retired from his role on a related multi-year research project at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The NIOSH-led collaborative project drove dramatic improvements in EMS clinician and adult patient ambulance crash safety. Green will utilize a similar approach in the effort to improve child safety in ground ambulances. NASEMSO support is provided by Rachael Alter (Project Manager) and Adrienne Wilson (Project Coordinator).

For more information, contact Rachael Alter at alter@nasemso.org.

NASEMSO Program Manager Kathy Robinson Publishes an Article in Science Direct

March 22, 2023

NASEMSO is proud to announce that Kathy Robinson, program manager, is a co-author of the article, “Leadership and Trauma-Informed Care: Working to Support Staff and Teams.” The article was published in the Journal of Emergency Nursing in Science Direct. The other co-authors is AnnMarie Papa DNP, RN, CEN, NE-BC, FAEN, FAAN. The concept of “trauma-informed care” as a paradigm in public health and human services has evolved over the past 30 years. Can trauma-informed practices be used as a leadership tool to help address staff/colleagues as they grapple with the concerns associated with a complex health care landscape? Trauma-informed care shifts the focus from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” This powerful approach to addressing stress might help set the stage for caring and meaningful interactions among staff and colleagues before exchanges become fraught with blame and unproductive or toxic impacts on team-based relationships.