EMS Professionals

A full-day symposium on the dangers of illicit narcotics will be held at Gillette Stadium on Friday, November 15. It is organized by Massachusetts state public safety offices, and attendance for Massachusetts EMTs, paramedics, fire fighters, law officers and health officials is free. EMTs and paramedics who provide evidence of attendance can count this event against one of their in-person rounds. Details can be found here.

IV Fluids Shortage

Posted October 8, 2024
Because of supply chain disruptions, hospitals and EMS systems throughout the country are facing shortfalls of normal saline and lactated Ringer’s solutions. Prehospital providers should thus use IV fluids even more judiciously then usual.

Obviously, for a severely dehydrated or septic patient, IV fluid bolus therapy should be used when it is available. But for softer indications — for example, patients reporting subjective dehydration with stable vitals, or patients with hyperglycemia with stable vitals — it is reasonable to defer decisions about IV fluids to the hospitals. (This remains at the discretion of the treating paramedic, of course.) When possible, it may also be wise to avoid preemptively spiking bags of IV fluids before decisions have been made to use them.

Given the emergency closure of part of the Rhode Island Washington Bridge, ambulances in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts may at times be facing delays in accessing hospital care in Providence.

This could at times limit access to critical services in our region, including cardiac and neuro interventional services, and pediatric and adult trauma and critical care services.

The 911 services in the western part of the South Coast region (of Rhode Island or Massachusetts) may thus be reaching out in real time to either Charlton Memorial or St. Luke’s to discuss whether we can be an alternative point-of-entry for a given case; or whether they should instead either call a field helicopter, or continue on to Providence or Boston despite long travel times.

This will have to be decided on a case-by-case basis, in real time, with the help of an online (radio or telephone) medical control physician. For now, existing point-of-entry plans are the default for 911 ambulances in both states.

To call on the phone (as opposed to the radio) for medical control, use these numbers:

St. Luke’s medical control phone: 888-959-7199

Charlton Memorial’s medical control phone: 844-486-7237

If you have a 508 area code number for either of these phones, please delete it and replace it with these numbers.

QA Pearls: O2 use, low-acuity MCIs, cardiac arrest with invalid DNRs
Posted March 11, 2023

Please share broadly the following observations, which come from the ongoing review process for our EMS calls:

• Oxygen therapy: This should only be initiated for patients with hypoxia by pulse ox. It should not be put on “for comfort,” or to treat distress. It should also not be dialed up for those reasons when pulse oximetry is already in the mid-90s or higher.
  
  
• Low-acuity school bus accidents: In an ideal world, if a school bus gets in a fender-bender but the children on board have no complaints, EMS would not even be called. That said, EMS is called, always — and what’s worse, the state (departments of public health and of education) can’t agree on a protocol for allowing EMS to medically clear students with no injuries. So here is the St. Luke’s protocol for this:
  • If possible, bring the entire bus and leave the students on the bus.
  • The St. Luke’s ER will do quick medical screenings; and will work with the school to make sure each child is picked up by an authorized family member.
  • If a minor injury is identified, we leave it to the family to decide if they want to check in formally — i.e., if they want to be billed for a full ER visit and evaluation
  • All of this only applies to minor events with minor to no injuries — if a particular child suffers something more serious, that should be treated like a typical EMS call, perhaps with separate ambulance transport.
• CPR when we can’t find the DNR: Protocol allows (in fact, mandates) for EMS to forego or cease resuscitation efforts in cardiac arrest when the patient has a valid DNR. But it often happens that family say the patient wanted to be DNR but can’t produce valid paperwork. In these cases, it is reasonable to continue CPR while simultaneously calling medical control. The med control physician can review the data available and make a ruling about whether the code should be called or continued.

Stroke Alert at St. Luke’s if TLKW < 24 Hours; Goes Straight to Hallway by CT Scanner

Posted October 13, 2022
Stroke care at St. Luke’s Hospital is already solid, but in cooperation with our new director of stroke care, Dr. Sacchetti, and a dedication to do better, the emergency department asks the following:

• Please call a stroke alert on patients meeting criteria when the time last known well (TLKW) is within 24 hours. This is a new criteria.
• Please expect the charge RN to send you towards the CT scanner hallway, where a doctor should meet you for a quick assessment prior to transferring the patient from EMS cot to CT scan table.

Thank you for all of your hard work in prehospital care. Please inform your supervisors or me of any pitfalls you find with this workflow.

Greater Fall River/New Bedford EMS Conference October 28

Posted October 6, 2022
The Greater Fall River/New Bedford EMS Conference will be held at White’s of Westport on October 28, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please note that the educational opportunities at the conference can count for up to two of the St. Luke’s EMS educational rounds requirements.

12-Lead ECG Competency

Posted July 19, 2022
The Office of EMS has recently reiterated the long-standing expectation that all paramedics must demonstrate written and practical competency in obtaining, interpreting and acting upon 12-lead ECGs. Every paramedic credentialed with St. Luke’s for medical direction passes a 12-lead ECG exam at on-boarding. (If you are not sure as a paramedic if you did this, ask your supervisor, or you can also reach out to the St. Luke’s EMS coordinator, Brian Giorgianni, at giorgiannib@southcoast.org.) Moreover: In order for a medical director to keep a paramedic credentialed, the state requires we ensure that the paramedic re-demonstrate these competencies every 2 years. This is again something that is generally organized in-house at an ambulance / EMS company, with trainings and / or tests that have been signed off on by the medical director. Please review the state’s expectations and reach out to St. Luke’s medical direction team if any questions.

Educational Rounds Requirements for 2022

Posted July 19, 2022
Please note that all EMS personnel who get medical direction from Southcoast will be expected to meet the usual educational rounds requirements in 2022 in order to stay credentialed. Those requirements were relaxed in 2020 and 2021 in recognition of COVID-19-associated disruptions. At this point, however, educational opportunities are back on line — monthly lectures have been available all year with the exception of our usual July-August break, and will resume in September (schedule to follow soon). The usual requirement for a provider to remain credentialed is to attend 5 educational rounds events annually. Documented educational rounds at other venues can be accepted but at least 2 should be at St. Luke’s.

Dinner Honoring EMS on May 17

Posted May 12, 2022
Southcoast is inviting our EMS colleagues to a dinner on Tuesday, May 17, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at White’s of Westport, to celebrate our mutual work in caring for the health of our community. We hope to see you there! (Cardiology and trauma lectures will be provided and can be counted as equivalent to St. Luke’s Hospital EMS educational rounds.) Click here to register.

No Interruptions for Charlton Cath Lab, Despite IV Contrast Shortages

Posted May 10, 2022
Many of you have heard of the national shortage of intravenous contrast dye, which is necessary for many diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The Cardiology service at Charlton Memorial Hospital wants to assure the EMS community that the Charlton cath lab remains fully prepared to serve STEMI patients and emergent and urgent cardiac patients. There will be no interruption in cardiac care during this critical shortage.

Storm-associated waiver: EMS may take non-medical patients to shelter this weekend

Posted January 28, 2022
During a storm like this weekend’s, some will call 911 not for medical issues, but for housing / shelter issues — i.e., no heat or power. The state OEMS has thus provided a waiver (attached), from 8 p.m. tonight until 7 a.m. Monday morning, to allow ambulances to transport people with no real medical complaints and no concerning exam / vital issues, not to hospitals, but to destinations such as shelters.

Storm realities: EMS will have to make real-time decisions about where to transport

Posted January 28, 2022
EMS may also encounter patients they would normally take to Fall River, Providence or Boston (e.g., major burns, pediatric trauma, STEMIs) — but if conditions are extraordinarily unsafe, they may end up diverting to closer hospitals. This is going to be a judgment call made by EMS crews either in consultation with their EMS agency leaders, or by radio calls for on-line physician medical control. Our local EMS leadership has years of experience with transporting medical emergencies during severely inclement weather, and the default will always be to try to get the patient to the appropriate point of entry. That said, if a weather natural disaster forces changes to usual protocols, the pre-hospital and hospital medical teams will have to work together and adapt accordingly.

Educational Rounds Requirements for EMS Providers Again Waived for 2021

Posted October 7, 2021.
EMS personnel who get medical direction from Southcoast will again for 2021 be given a blanket waiver on all medical director’s education rounds requirements. A similar waiver was provided for 2020. (The usual requirement for a provider to remain credentialed is to attend 5 educational rounds events annually, of which at least 2 should be at St. Luke’s; while after months of cancelled rounds due to COVID-19, we have successfully transitioned to video-based lectures recently, we have not offered these video lectures as reliably or as often as our past monthly in-person lectures, so the requirements are being waived).

COVID-19 is Not Gone, Protect Yourselves & Your Patients

Please note that with Delta variant of COVID-19 on the rise, the state Department of Public Health and St. Luke’s Hospital have both reiterated we need to continue all of the infection control practices EMS has developed and successfully followed over the past 18 months. This means:

• All standard protective gear, including masks & eye protection while with patients
• No aerosolizing procedures while entering the EDs, so stop CPAP and / or nebulizers and transition (if needed) to oxygen therapy until a patient is roomed
• Do not come to work if symptomatic with fever / viral illness symptoms

Vaccinations are safe and they work, including against Delta variant.

Happy EMS Week 2021!

Posted May 18, 2021.
Thank you to all of our prehospital care partners, for all of the work you do!

Medics, We Need Your Patient Care Info

Posted February 11, 2021.
EMTs and paramedics, please remember to leave a completed patient care report for every patient.

Please also remember to document mental status and / or Glasgow Coma Scale on every trauma patient.

EMS and Aerosolizing Procedures

Posted January 18, 2021.
Coronaviruses that cause diseases such as SARS and COVID-19 are felt to be spread by respiratory droplets. The highest-risk mechanism of spread of such droplets is an infected patient actively coughing. But unique to healthcare, there are “aerosolizing procedures” — ranging from suctioning an airway, to applying a nebulizer treatment, to CPR and bag-mask ventilation — that can also aerosolize droplets containing viral particles.

Southcoast hospitals has taken a conservative approach towards aerosolizing procedures. We may avoid nebulizer treatments or CPAP / BiPAP in patients felt high-risk to have a COVID-19 infection, for example, and if we do need to use these modalities for a patient with COVID-19, we try to do so in a negative pressure room, with staff wearing high-level protective equipment.

For EMS responding to 911 calls, it is at the discretion of the first responder whether to provide CPAP or nebulizer treatments. On the one hand, there is a small risk of increased infection exposure to the providers; on the other, these providers are the first contact with an undifferentiated patient who may be in severe respiratory distress, unable to breathe. So paramedics should be empowered to judge the risks to themselves and their team against the risks and needs of the patient. (We do ask that upon arrival to the ED, therapies such as nebulizers and CPAP be paused while a patient passes through the halls and is roomed, to protect other ED patients.)

For EMS responding to hospitals for intrafacility transfers, this calculation is different: EMS should not be expected to transport COVID-19 patients on CPAP or BiPAP, or receiving nebulizer treatments. The expectation is that COVID-19 patients must be stable enough to travel without those therapies (or they could be intubated for the transfer). An exception to this would be for EMS services that have obtained hood / helmet CPAP systems that are self-contained and thus decrease risk of viral spread.

EMS Can Give Flu & COVID-19 Vaccinations

Posted December 19, 2020
The Department of Public Health has by emergency order granted EMTs (both basic and paramedic level) authority to administer influenza and / or COVID-19 vaccinations. The EMTs must be working for a licensed ambulance service; must undergo an in-house training program; and be prepared to manage possible adverse reactions. See here for a list of all relevant new orders and communications; and for the emergency protocols themselves, see  influenza vaccination protocols for paramedics and basics;  COVID-19 vaccination protocols for EMT-basics; and COVID-19 vaccination protocols for paramedics.

Note that EMS personnel must undergo a specific training program prior to activating these emergency protocols; also note that EMS companies that get their medical direction from Southcoast Hospitals can expect our support in rapidly approving such in-house training programs.

EMS: Protect Yourself; Wear All PPE at All Times

Posted November 21, 2020
Prevalence of COVID-19 has risen again in southern Massachusetts to the point that EMS personnel should now assume that every patient, symptomatic or not, could be infected with COVID-19. EMS personnel should thus wear full protective equipment on every call: Gown, gloves, eye protection, and an N95 mask or equivalent.

Please also remember:

• Wash hands and stethoscopes frequently
• Discontinue any aerosol-generating procedures (CPAP, nebulizer treatments) prior to entry to the ED. (We may or may not restart such therapies once a patient is safely roomed.)
• The decision to start CPAP or a nebulizer treatment in the ambulance must now, again, be individualized. These procedures increase risk to the EMS providers of a COVID-19 infection — exactly how much it increases the risk is not clear, especially if the providers wear N95 masks and other protective gear. (Arguably, a patient coughing is a bigger risk than a patient on CPAP, when it comes to aerosolizing respiratory droplets). Case by case, each EMS provider will have to make their own medical judgment about whether a given patient should have a nebulizer treatment or be placed on CPAP — balancing the risk to themselves and their colleagues personally, against the benefit expected for the given patient.

Identifying Patients: We Rely on EMS

Posted November 9, 2020
To provide best possible care, Southcoast hospitals is going to rely more and more on our pre-hospital partners to identify patients who may otherwise be too confused or altered to identify themselves. This is especially critical in the COVID-19 era when we have limited visitors — we can no longer rely on many family members to identify their loved one.

EMS providers, please do your best to obtain the exact name, birth date and address of patients who can’t identify themselves; bring copies or cell phone photos of driver’s licenses or other identification; bring a name and phone number for any family member who helped with identification.

St. Luke’s ED: Limited Visitors Policies Back in Effect

Posted November 3, 2020
Please note that at St. Luke’s emergency department, given rising prevalence of Covid-19, we are again moving to a no visitors / limited visitors policy.

Exceptions are rarely made for patients with critical, life-threatening illnesses, or who at baseline require a caregiver for mental or physical disability.

We ask our EMS partners to:

• Communicate this with families at scenes
• Make a special effort to fully identify patients — take a photo of a driver’s license or bring it along, get confirmation from a named family member or facility staff person of the patient’s exact identity (name, date of birth)
• Make a special effort to take down contact information for a relevant family point person we should call with updates or questions
• Make a special effort to identify Code Status or advanced directives when that might be relevant

Families can also always call the St. Luke’s ED themselves, 508-973-5390, for updates on relatives brought to us by ambulance. They should be encouraged to have one family member be the point person for such calls.

Separately but related, please also remember:

• Wear appropriate protective gear, wash hands and stethoscopes frequently, keep yourself and patients safe
• Discontinue any aerosol-generating procedures (CPAP, nebulizer treatments) prior to entry to the ED (we may restart them once a patient is safely roomed)

 Weds Night from 8 p.m.: Ambulance Entry Change

EMS Return-to-Work Guidelines after Covid-19 Infection

Posted October 20, 2020
After an EMT, paramedic or other healthcare worker tests positive for Covid-19 — when and how can they go back to work? The algorithm per CDC is simple:

• Mildly symptomatic, with a positive Covid-19 test?
  Out of work:
  • For 10 days since symptoms first appeared, and
  • For 24 hours since last fever, and
  • Until symptoms “have improved”
    (So 10 days after onset of symptoms, one could still have residual cough, say, but could return to work — as long as improving and no fever for at least a day. CDC does recommend people with persistent mild symptoms wear a face mask at all times at work.)
• Asymptomatic, with a positive Covid-19 test?
  Out of work for 10 days. If develop mild symptoms in that time, revert to “mildly symptomatic” category above.
• Severely / critically symptomatic with Covid-19 — OR, even asymptomatic, but with an underlying compromised immune system?
  CDC says out of work “for at least 10 and up to 20 days” since symptom onset. So these special cases could be discussed with medical control; or, as CDC notes, with input from an infectious disease specialist if that was felt necessary; or could simply default to a 20-day quarantine.

What if the healthcare worker is ready to return — but obtains a second Covid-19 test, and is still testing positive? This suggests they are still shedding virus, and until recently it was felt they needed to remain out until they were no longer testing positive. In our region, we have had a handful of cases of EMS personnel who feel well and are ready to work, but who have been sidelined for weeks, with serial tests persistently coming back positive. The good news is: Those people are almost certainly testing positive but no longer contagious, and can return to work.

Research summarized by CDC now shows that many people will shed Covid-19 coronavirus particles for 3 months or more after an infection — but the viral particles at that point have been chewed up by the patient’s immune system and are no longer contagious.

For those who had mild infections and a strong immune system, no “replication-competent” viral particles have been isolated after 10 days from symptom onset; for some who had a critical Covid-19 illness or an underlying immunocompromised state, contagious viral particles were identified for a longer period — but even then, 95% of the time, by 15 days from symptom onset the virus particles shed were degraded to the point of being non-contagious. These conclusions are based on study of viral particles isolated themselves, but also on contract tracing studies that have followed patients shedding Covid-19 viral particles for weeks and months, and have confirmed that their close contacts are not being infected. Given this, it is not necessary to obtain a repeat Covid-19 test to return to work; and if one is still obtained and is positive, it can be ignored.

Finally, note that there is a near-zero incidence of Covid-19 reinfection so far. In fact, in the United States, there has only been one convincingly reported case, in a healthy 25-year-old man in Nevada, and worldwide only 4 other cases. Early reports of Covid-19 reinfections were most likely situations where a person recovered from Covid-19, then contracted a different viral illness but was still testing positive for Covid-19. So for anyone who tests positive for Covid-19, for at least the next 3 months, they do not need to take repeat Covid-19 tests if they develop a fever and / or viral syndromes, but can instead simply stay out of work until no fever for 24 hours and symptoms are improved.

BLS protocols: Bronchodilators, Epi, CPAP & Glucagon

Posted August 13, 2020
The Statewide Pre-Hospital Treatment Protocols for 2020 allow BLS providers — if properly trained — to provide select medical interventions that were once reserved for paramedics. These sections of protocol must be explicitly activated by the EMS medical director. For EMS services that receive medical direction from Southcoast physicians, this memo confirms the following select optional protocols (and only the following) are active and can be accessed — again, with the provision that BLS providers must have received appropriate training, and the service they work for must have approved local use. (Please note that once the medical director activates these options, this only clears the way for EMS leaders to further implement — all actors should be sure to review these protocols before “going live,” as the state has included significant commitments for training and for post-call quality improvement reviews).

Once trained and approved by their local EMS leadership, BLS providers working under Southcoast medical direction may:

• Section 6.1: initiate bronchodilators in patients who already take them and have an established diagnosis of reactive airway disease
• Section 6.3: use the Selective Spinal Assessment protocol to determine whether or not a patient requires a hard cervical collar immobilization.
• Section 6.6: administer intramuscular epinephrine injections for anaphylaxis via “Check and Inject” kits (as an alternative to epinephrine auto-injectors or “Epi Pens.”)
• Section 6.9: initiate Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) in appropriate patients suffering respiratory distress in setting of bronchospasm or congestive heart failure.
• Section 6.10: administer intramuscular glucagon injections for patients with documented hypoglycemia and who are too altered to take by-mouth glucose / sugars.

Covid-19: Please stay vigilant!

Posted July 22, 2020
Please note that Covid-19, while it has waned in southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, does still remain prevalent in the region. We are seeing Covid-19 cases in our emergency departments still almost every day. So it is important to continue, as EMS providers, to use appropriate protective gear (N95 masks with patients; surgical masks at least when not engaged in patient care), wash hands, and practice appropriate physical distancing. The experience of EMS and emergency departments in our area confirms: You will be at low risk of contracting Covid-19 even if you care for multiple contagious Covid-19 patients — provided you do these 3 simple things.

If pepper spray / tear gas: Call Ahead; Need to Decon

Posted June 3, 2020
Please note that patients exposed to pepper spray, tear gas or other riot-control gasses / agents can expose EMS and other healthcare providers via off-gassing from their skin and clothes. They need decontamination prior to entering a hospital. EMS providers should call ahead to warn the emergency department if bringing such a case, and will likely be directed to a decon area prior to proceeding to any ED room. (At St. Luke’s, for just an isolated case or two this would mean either entering the ambulance bay and proceeding to the next-door decon room and its showers, or possibly being directed to enter via the decon room’s external door; in event of multiple cases there may be outside tent decon facility operations.)

Decon — which people with minor exposures who don’t feel they need medical care can also perform on their own — basically involves removing and bagging exposed clothes, washing with soap and water, and for eye irritation, irrigating with water for several minutes. For more information see this excellent CDC info sheet on riot-control agents.

Rounds Postponed for June.

We are postponing the planned educational rounds for June 2020. (Rounds requirements for paramedics for 2020 will also be adjusted, in light of COVID-19 disruptions.)

Advisory: COVID-19 Associated with STEMIs

Posted May 13, 2020
Please note that viral respiratory infections, including influenza A and B, RSV, and now COVID-19, are all associated with a large increase in risk for myocardial infarction / STEMI. A study two years ago found that having had a viral illness in the past seven days dramatically increased risk for an MI. Influenza B increased risk of MI in the next seven days by 10-fold, influenza A by 5-fold, RSV by 3-fold. It is also noteworthy that historically, more people die after influenza from a cardiac cause than a pneumonia.

COVID-19 has also been implicated in cardiovascular pathology. It has been associated with STEMIs, as well as NSTEMIs and STEMI-mimic myocarditis. (Why? Unclear, but overall, it like influenza is associated with all-body inflammatory processes, which in turn increase risk for pathological clotting.) Paramedics should please remember to consider STEMI in the differential for a patient with a viral syndrome picture.

For Non-911 EMS: Use St. Luke’s Main Lobby Entrance

Posted May 12, 2020.
All emergent / 911 EMS arriving to St. Luke’s should continue to use the regular ambulance bay doors as always. But non-emergent ambulance teams should enter through the main hospital lobby. (Although in past non-emergent EMS has arrived via the MRI access area, that door is now closed). The hospital is screening all staff and visitors on arrival, and EMS staff can also expect to be screened for temperature readings.

Rounds Postponed for May.

We are postponing the planned educational rounds for May 2020. (Rounds requirements for paramedics for 2020 will also be adjusted, in light of COVID-19 disruptions.)

Advisory: COVID-19 May Present as Cardiac Arrest

Last reviewed: April 30, 2020
A recent letter in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) rose rapidly during the first 40 days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, in tandem with rising cases of the coronavirus infection. The implication is that many COVID-19 cases presented for the first time to healthcare as cardiac arrests.

EMS providers should assume any OHCA could be COVID-19 related; and should review the latest American Heart Association guidelines on managing cardiac arrest in cases of confirmed or suspected COVID-19. Some of these AHA recommendations are counter-intuitive to past practice. They include:

• Wear all appropriate PPE and minimize personnel involved
• Consider use of mechanical chest compression devices (to help limit staff involved / exposed)
• Use viral filters if intubating / ventilating patients
• HOLD compressions if intubating, to ensure first-pass success and minimize airway manipulation / exposure
• Whatever airway strategy is used, if possible consider early attachment to ventilator’s closed circuit (with viral filters) as opposed to bag-mask ventilation
• Finally, consider the appropriateness of even starting or continuing resuscitation in cases strongly likely to be COVID-19, given the possible poor prognosis; this can be discussed with medical control if needed.

Update on Expedited COVID Testing for First Responders

Last reviewed: April 7, 2020
Effective immediately, first responders who are SYMPTOMATIC and need a COVID-19 test can self-present to the St. Luke’s ED triage area. If they identify as a first responder in need of a test, then they will be directed to a tent for rapid COVID-19 testing that is open now from 9am to 6pm. This replaces the prior protocol of calling ahead to the ED.

Protocol 6.11 on Calling Select Codes in Field Activated

Last reviewed: April 2, 2020
Effective immediately, paramedics who receive medical control from Southcoast Hospitals medical directors (at Charlton Memorial, Tobey or St. Luke’s) can make use of Statewide Treatment Protocols Medical Control Option 6.11, “Withholding and Cessation of Resuscitation.”

Medics must present the case to the Online Medical Control physician via CMED. Medics should continue resuscitation during this med control call. Do not stop before or during the radio call — assume the code is still active! If the emergency physician reviewing the case is not comfortable in any way, the physician may well decline this. In that case, paramedics must continue resuscitative efforts and transport to nearest hospital.

In addition to receiving Online Medical Control approval to stop the resuscitation, the case itself must meet the following minimum requirements to be considered for this:

• Adults only (18 and over)
• Patient not visibly pregnant
• No relevant hypothermia suspicion
• All standard ALS has been provided — includes medications, defibrillation if relevant, respiratory support, but does not necessarily require advanced airway
• Patient has been PERSISTENTLY in either asystole or PEA for > 20 minutes (so, can’t be in and out of ventricular dysrhythmias, or having intermittent return of spontaneous circulation)
• No relevant hypothermia suspicion
• If patient has advanced airway, it must have been confirmed by End-Tidal CO2 with waveform

EMS May Defer Transport of Certain COVID-19 Cases

Last reviewed: March 31, 2020
Effective immediately, EMS has been given permission by the state to not transport well-appearing, viral syndrome-only cases that meet strict criteria. The medics must call for On-Line Medical Control every time to share the decision-making in real time with an emergency department physician. Medics can provide treatment at the scene per their discretion, but such treatments must be consistent only with supportive care for a viral syndrome (i.e., antipyretics, anti-emetics, etc.)

Patients eligible for this protocol of deferred transport must:

• Only appear to have COVID-19 / viral syndrome, no other complaints
• Be alert and oriented
• Be between ages 18 and 55
• Have at least 2 viral syndrome symptoms (cough, sore throat, nasal congestion, fever, chills, myalgias)
• Have a heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate in normal limits for their age
• Have an oxygen saturation of more than 94%
• Have no signs or symptoms of recent syncope, chest pain (other than mild, cough-associated pain), cyanosis, respiratory distress
• Have no past history of COPD, asthma, heart disease, diabetes or immunosuppression
• Have access to a primary care provider or other outpatient healthcare provider
• Agree, or have a caregiver who consents, to not going to an emergency department

CPAP, Nebulizer Therapies During COVID-19 Pandemic

Last reviewed: March 31, 2020
CPAP and nebulizer treatments have potential to aerosolize viral particles. For this reason, Southcoast asks that EMS discontinue all such therapies upon arrival to our emergency departments. This is not because such therapies are inappropriate — as we all know, they can be excellent for dyspneic patients — but because we prefer not to continue them while the patient is being wheeled down the hallway. This is to protect other patients in the department, in the event the patient being treated turns out to have an infectious process such as COVID-19. Once in the patient room, the emergency department may well re-initiate the same therapy, per the physician’s discretion.

The state OEMS recently released an emergency protocol update regarding care of possible COVID-19 patients. This protocol notes that CPAP and nebulizer treatments have potential to aerosolize viral particles, and says paramedics “may defer” those treatments to the receiving hospital.

To be clear: Paramedics can still start CPAP or nebulizer treatments for dyspneic patients. But they are also empowered not to do that, for example if the patient seems to be in only mild distress. This is at paramedic discretion, and will have to be a balancing act every time between the safety needs of the EMS crew — aerosolizing procedures like nebs do create a small increased risk — and the medical care needs of the patient.

What PPE Required for EMS?

Last reviewed: March 31, 2020
SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, is felt to be droplet and contact transmitted, and so surgical mask, eye protection, gown and gloves are all appropriate PPE. But remember that once nebs or CPAP are involved, it could be aerosolized, or air borne, at which point an N95 quality respirator mask is appropriate.

Southcoast, EMS & COVID-19: Other Policy Updates

Last reviewed: March 31, 2020
All staff in Southcoast EDs are wearing a surgical mask at work at all times; in many situations, staff are wearing N95s. We ask that all EMS providers wear at least a surgical mask upon arrival to the ED at all times.

Expedited COVID-19 Testing for First Responders

Last reviewed: April 7, 2020
First posted: March 31, 2020
[ UPDATE THIS PROTOCOL IS NOW OUTDATED, SEE ABOVE APRIL 7. ]
For EMS providers and other first responders who are SYMPTOMATIC with fever, cough, shortness of breath or other possible infectious symptoms, St. Luke’s ED will arrange expedited testing.

For these cases:
1) Call ahead to inform resource RN you are coming, 508-973-5390
2) Arrive if at all possible in surgical face mask
3) Come to usual ambulance entrance and ring the doorbell
4) You will be met, quickly roomed, registered, a test swab taken and you will be immediately discharged home for further self-quarantine

This is ONLY FOR SYMPTOMATIC first-responders. We CANNOT TEST providers with no symptoms just because of a COVID-19 exposure history.

EMS Needs to Mask Patients & Wear PPE for All Cases

Last reviewed: March 31, 2020
First posted: March 19, 2020
The following is policy for all EMS companies affiliated with Southcoast Hospitals for their medical direction:

Medics who do wear full PPE (gown, mask, gloves and eye protection) while caring for even a high-risk COVID-19 / a.k.a. SARS-CoV-2 case (febrile, actively coughing) do not need any special monitoring and are not considered exposed. (If a facility asks an EMS provider, “Have you been exposed to a SARS-CoV-2 patient?” the answer, provided they were wearing full PPE, is “No.”)

Medics who fail to wear PPE with a case that is subsequently confirmed as SARS-CoV-2 need, per CDC, quarantined for 2 weeks.

Medics who fail to wear PPE with a case that is subsequently shunted into a SARS-CoV-2 ruleout pathway need quarantined until the ruleout comes back negative.

Note that 48.5% of SARS-CoV-2 patients in one study in China had diarrhea (!) as their presenting complaint. Also note that patients can be asymptomatic but contagious for 2-3 days prior to developing symptoms themselves.

Taken together, this will translate as: either we will save some masks and gowns up front (but lose staff to unexpected 2-week quarantines and likely spread infection further); or we will use masks and gowns liberally upfront, decrease exposure risk not just to EMS workers but to many others, and run the risk of running out of masks and gowns later (and then improvising).

Southcoast thus formally recommends that EMS use appropriate PPE for a SARS-CoV-2 patient on all undifferentiated patients. The only exceptions should be cases that are clearly not SARS-CoV-2 in nature – that have no respiratory, GI, nonspecific symptoms (“weak and dizzy,” “don’t feel good”), or classically infectious symptoms (body aches, sore throat, etc.)

In other words, patients who present with STEMIs, strokes, psychiatric complaints, isolated GI bleeding, substance abuse, genitourinary issues, major or minor trauma, etc. — who also do not screen positive for these other respiratory, infectious or GI symptoms when asked – could reasonably be considered “asymptomatic for SARS-CoV-2.”

Given the enormous commitment on the part of the entire nation to try to limit spread of SARS-CoV-2 in other settings, many ordinary citizens — who are out of work, their kids out of school, their grocery store shelves empty — would be shocked if they were to learn that EMS providers – who have the highest level of potential exposures, stuck in the back of an enclosed ambulance for prolonged periods with patients, often while initiating emergency aerosol-generating procedures like bag-mask ventilation, neb therapies or CPAP – and who also have the broadest travel across our network of hospitals and care facilities – weren’t in every case taking the most basic of precautions. It seems logical to recommend EMS wear full PPE in any case that could reasonably be SARS-CoV-2 – if not in every case that an EMS crew transports.

CDC on EMS & Other Healthcare Worker Exposures

“… emergency first responders … may be permitted to continue work following potential exposure to SARS-CoV-2 (either travel-associated or close contact to a confirmed case), provided they remain asymptomatic.

“Personnel who are permitted to work following an exposure should self-monitor under the supervision of their employer’s occupational health program including taking their temperature before each work shift to ensure they remain afebrile. On days these individuals are scheduled to work, the employer’s occupational health program could consider measuring temperature and assessing symptoms prior to their starting work.

“… CDC does not recommend testing, symptom monitoring or special management for people exposed to asymptomatic people with potential exposures to SARS-CoV-2 (such as in a household), i.e., “contacts of contacts;” these people are not considered exposed to SARS-CoV-2.”

Rounds Postponed for April.

We are postponing the planned educational rounds for April 2020.