We’ve been monitoring the response times for the big ambulance service provider - Rural Metro – since they went into bankruptcy in August. They have 13 different ambulance services in Arizona and we want to make sure that they're meeting the grade during their reorganization. We asked them to send us monthly reports on their response times [...]
How do we evaluate Arizona’s trauma system, you ask? Good question. Over the next few weeks I’ll blog about “Trauma System Evaluation 101” as well as some of the evaluation tools we use to assess Arizona’s trauma system. The goal of any trauma system is to get the right patient to the right place in [...]
Four years ago- AZ's Trauma System was really in its infancy. We had 7 Level I (high-end) Trauma Centers… but that’s it. After 4 years and a full court press- we now have a functional statewide trauma system to help folks who get injured outside the metropolitan areas that includes 31 trauma centers including 16 of the [...]
Physical activity is absolutely essential to maintain good health… but you need checks in the system to make sure it’s done safely. That’s where the CDC’s Heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports on-line training comes in. It’s is a free, online course available to coaches, parents, and others designed to help keep athletes safe from [...]
Four years ago- AZ didn’t really have a trauma system. We had 7 Level I (high-end) Trauma Centers… but that’s it. After 4 years and a full court press- we now have a decent trauma system that includes 31 trauma centers, (8 Level I, 4 Level III, and 19 Level IV (16 of the Level [...]
Traumatic brain injury is involved in about 1/3 of all injury-related deaths- it’s clearly a public health issue. That’s why we created Arizona's Excellence in Pre-hospital Injury Care project- which is aimed at improving brain injury outcomes in AZ. The National Institutes of Health chose AZ as the only state to evaluate the national standards [...]
Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in Arizona (7,600/year). Because Arizona’s EMS agencies (including more and more 911 centers) have implemented key interventions, the survival rate from Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Arizona has increased by 300% since 2004. Arizona’s pre-hospital and EMS system has become a model that has been adopted across [...]
Injuries are the leading cause of death for Arizonans from age 1 to 44. That means for the majority of the young and the middle-aged injury is more lethal than cancer, heart disease, hypertension and influenza combined. The effectiveness of a State’s pre-hospital and Trauma System makes the difference when it comes to saving lives [...]
The effectiveness of a State’s EMS and Pre-Hospital & Trauma System makes the difference when it comes to saving lives (and quality of life) from injuries. Injuries are the leading cause of death for Arizonans from age 1 to 44- so you can see how important it is for states to have an effective EMS & [...]
I often get good feedback about the things that we're accomplishing and the decisions that we're making... but it's not often that I get feedback from the other side of the globe- but that's just what happened this week. Kyoung-Jun Song, MD, an emergency physician in South Korea sent me an e-mail this week thanking [...]
