Re: coordinator freeze/changes

[Guest guest]

Hey Tony

I would like to know who these people are. Please e-mail me at

FSHAIII@... or call me at . Thank you.

See ya,

F. E.

[Guest guest]

Tony:

On the one hand you are denouncing the quality of many current coordinators

and, thus, the quality control function of the Texas Dept. of Health. On the

other hand, you are suggesting that agency should be creating new

coordinators when they can't seem to police the quality of those they

already have. I submit that one reason for the reluctance to appoint large

numbers of new coordinators has been the realization by TDH that they can't

really police the system as it stands and that they recognize new

coordinators need to be much better prepared than some of the older ones

were. All efforts to limit future coordinators to the ranks of those

professionally training as educators (as well as being EMS professionals)

failed because of the rural-small town-FD/volunteer lobby that seems to have

" captured " the Bureau of Emergency Management in the last few years.

Capturing refers to the state of affairs when a regulatory agency becomes

more answerable to the industry, or a portion of the industry, it is

supposed to regulate than it is to the citizens whose interests it is

chartered to look out for. Given the difficulties we have getting any

quality-enhancing reform into regulation these days, I think it is not

unfair to state that the Bureau has been captured. The only way the agency

can now prevent large numbers of ill-prepared, unqualified coordinators from

exacerbating the already-existing quality problems we have in our EMS

education system without inflaming their masters in the above mentioned

lobby, is to make it very difficult and arduous for anyone else to become a

coordinator. Until something changes in the dynamics of our EMS regulatory

process in this state, I think you better get used to this. Note, I don't

say I like it, I just understand why it is and consider the alternative

worse.

Dave

coordinator freeze/changes

> I would like to take issue with how the regulation and investigation of

coordinators is being handled. I am only one among a large number of ems

field personnel and ems educators who are concerned how some emt's are being

instructed or rather not being instructed. It is the coordinator's

responsibility to insure students are properly educated and properly

prepared for clinicals. I can speak from experience when I say the emt's

being released to clinicals do not have a clue as to what they are doing.

Many emt students have told me they have never taken a BP or splinted an

extremity or they don't know how to put a nasal cannula on a patient. I

know the instructors that turn out these students and they in my opinion are

unprofessional and ill prepared to teach any form of emergency training.

They want to live in the dark ages of ems and treat with a minimum standard

of care and efficiency.

>

> I have tried contacting TDH representatives to discuss the issue, but

have yet to receive a reply. Apparently, the people who we rely on to

assist us and regulate our certifications/licenses are not too concerned

about poor education of emt students. People wonder why Texas is slow to

catch-up with the rest of the nation. The reason Texas is behind is lack of

communication!

>

> Also, in some areas there are only one or two coordinators, thus if

there is a problem it becomes difficult to route when there is a freeze on

new coordinator positions and TDH personnel will not respond. There are

those of us who can provide students with the proper education and training

essential to provide a high standard of care to the community. We know what

needs to be changed, how to change it, and to what extent it needs to be

changed.

>

> We will continue to see ems stagnate until someone with the authority

and the willingness steps up to the plate and addresses the issues that

truly plague our system.

>

>

> Tony EMT-P

> EMS Educator

>

> These statements are my own and do not represent the opinions of any other

individual or organization unless stated otherwise.

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