American Ambulance EMS Podcast

In acute respiratory distress, telling the difference in the prehospital setting between COPD and CHF can be a challenge.  Please join the UCSF-Fresno doctors and special guest, Critical Care Paramedic, Scott Charlston as they discuss the astute differences between pulmonary edema and  bronchoconstriction and help give tips and tricks to make sure you are on the correct protocol.

Join our UCSF physician team as they discuss the topic of traumatic amputations.  Special guest co-host Dr. Steffani Campbell and Paramedic Ian Ashby join the podcast to discuss amputations and the importance of early tourniquet use.  Hear the discussion of the evidence behind the use of tourniquets and hear a lively discussion on how to treat digit amputations.

We are joined this time by EMT Dhillon Saccra and Paramedic Clarissa Torralva as they share their case of a bradycardic emergency patient. The podcast team will discuss the pathophysiology of symptomatic bradycardia, the different AV blocks you may encounter on EKG and treatment options like atropine and cardiac pacing.

Please join us with special guest, Paramedic Derek Ratzel as we discuss coronary ischemic chest pain.  Hear how aspirin and nitroglycerin work on the body.  Enjoy a fun "Fact vs Fiction" discussion about common misconceptions in the care of chest pain patients that help us all understand how the treatment provided in the field makes a difference in the patient's ultimate outcome. 

Seeing tachycardia on the monitor can certainly be tachycardia inducing for EMS providers! Join our UCSF-Fresno docs and special guest, EMT Jordan Golding as the team discusses the the different fast rhythms that can present and the treatment options of stable and unstable patients.

Today, we will be answering lots of frequently asked questions about COVID vaccines. Join our UCSF- Fresno physician team to hear a fun, evidence based discussion.

Join us for our 25th episode of the podcast! Today, we will be discussing acute ingestion/poisoning cases and our UCSF Fresno physician team will be joined by senior Paramedic Hal Fielding.  Hear a fast paced, evidence based discussion on current EMS treatment and why charcoal and ipecac are falling out of favor. 

Interested in how cocaine and methamphetamine affect the heart?  Tune in to this podcast to hear a lively discussion about these substances, the short term and long term effects they have on the heart and how stimulants can affect your chest pain patients.  

Please join our Podcast team with special co-host Dr. Kayla Johnson and paramedic Kyle Van Mowrick as we discuss the epidemiology, pathophysiology and treatment of pediatric respiratory distress.  You will hear a great discussion regarding asthma, brochiolitis, croup and foreign body obstruction.  After listening, you will have a deeper understanding of upper and lower airway sounds including stridor and wheezing and how this assessment can impact treatment decisions.

A seizure is a sudden, uncontrolled electrical disturbance in the brain. Join is as we discuss the pathophysiology of seizures, how best to treat them, and hear a case from Paramedic Jordan Yost. 

Burnout is real, and affects everyone at some point in their lives. In this episode, we talk to EMT Lashon Newsome about her experience with it and how it led to her career in paramedicine. We discuss burnout in depth, including what leads to it and ways to get yourself out of it with our American Ambulance social worker Ken Katz, In addition, our Human Resources adviser Victoria Pope joins us to explain all the wellness tools American Ambulance has available to its wonderful employees.

Asthma affects many children and adults around the country, and we have an especially high rate of asthma in the California Central Valley. 

For this episode we were very happy to be joined by Jordan Yost, an American Ambulance Paramedic Supervisor, who shares a story with us of one of the asthma calls.

Join us as we explore the pathophysiology of this condition, its triggers, assessment, and most importantly the mainstays of asthma therapies in the field and during transport to the hospital.   

Join us on this podcast as we meet the owner and CEO of American Ambulance.  Mr. Todd Valeri shares his inspirational story of how he got into paramedicine.  He also discusses his vision for the agency and shares with us insight into his involvement in EMS at a regional and statewide level.

Dry drowning, wet drowning, near drowning…What really matters when you find someone who has been drowning? Is it necessary to always protect c-spine if it makes airway management difficult? Listen to the team’s conversation as they highlight the most important aspects of submersion injuries. Our guest this episode is Paramedic Tasha Mulvena. Thank you Tasha, for going above and beyond the call of duty and taking care of patients the way no one else can. 

Much attention has been paid to opioid abuse in recent years; yet, in the Central Valley, we can trace many drug related accidents and illness to Methamphetamine. Co-host and resident Toxicologist Dr. Armenian has a wealth of knowledge to give you the tools you need, from history, to clinical presentation, to treatment. It may change how you care for your next patient. Our guest this episode is Derek Ratzel. Thank you Derek, for recognizing and treating some of the most unpredictable presentations.

Please join us and Special guest Mato Parker from the EMS Agency have an evidence based discussion surrounding the quality improvement initiatives for the Central California EMS Agency (CCEMSA).  



SHOW NOTES:

Brown J, Rosengart M, et al. Not all prehospital time is equal, Influence of scene time on mortality

J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2016 Jul; 81(1): 93–100.

Nasser A, Nederpelt C, et al. Every Minute Counts: The impact for pre hospital response time and scene time on mortality of penetrating trauma patients.  American Journal of Surgery 2019, 220:1, 240-244.

Haroon C, Ratner D, Pozo M, et al. Prehospital delay and its impact on time to treatment in ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Am J Emerg Med. 2011;29(4):396–400.

McNally B, Stokes A, Crouch A, Kellermann AL; CARES Surveillance Group. CARES: Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival. Ann Emerg Med. 2009;54(5):674-683.e2. doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2009.03.018

Non-accidental trauma is something no one wants to talk about, but it is something you should always be thinking about. In this episode, the team discusses specific findings that should make you suspicious, or at least think twice, while you are transporting a child. You can be the difference between a healthy child and a fatal case report. Thank you to our guest, Ben Garcia, American Ambulance's Operation Manager, for his contribution to this episode, his knowledge and insight provided the perfect complement to our hosts’ discussion. 

Diabetic complications are a common complaints faced by EMS daily. Tune in to hear paramedic Chris Zaczek share his story and listen to an evidence based discussion of hypoglycemia and other diabetic emergencies.

It's getting hot out there! Please join us as we discuss how to recognize and how best to treat heat illness and heat stoke.   

In this episode we discuss the nature of lightning strikes and how to treat victims of these rare but potentially very serious cases. The case example for this episode comes from our very own American Ambulance Podcast producer, John-Mark Bergen who tells a story of a lightning strike that happened in his neighbor's courtyard when he was living in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

As the opioid epidemic evolves, there is a rise in synthetic opioid intoxication such as with fentanyl and use of naloxone in the prehospital setting. In this episode, we talk about the CCEMSA protocol along with assessment and management of these patients, with special attention paid to naloxone dosing.