Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Program

Chelsea Kadish, MD
EMS Medical Director

Jennifer Ament, MSN, RN
Program Manager, EMS Outreach and Education

Program Educators

Chris Casey, EMT-P, EMS-I

Nick Baird, EMT-P, C-NPT

Chris Newsom, EMT-P, C-NTP, EMS-I

According to McPherson et al. (1998), Children with special health care needs are those who have or are at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition and who also require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally.

Although children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN) are often considered a small group of the pediatric population, these children account for a large portion of emergency department visits and EMS transports. Ideally, pediatric tertiary care centers, such as Nationwide Children’s Hospital, are the home hospitals for these children and are prepared to care for their complex medical needs. In an emergency, many of these children are cared for by local emergency departments and EMS agencies that are not familiar with their special needs. In an effort to provide the best possible care for children and families with special needs, we have developed an outreach program specifically for EMS providers. Here is how it works:

The Emergency Information Form (EIF) is completed by the child’s health care provider, signed by the parents and submitted to the EMS Coordinator. The EMS Coordinator reviews and summarizes the EIF, identifies the child’s home EMS agency and sends the EIF and summary to the child’s EMS agency and regional air medical service, if appropriate. The EMS Coordinator facilitates a meeting between the child’s family and EMS agency to develop a mutually agreed upon emergency transport plan. When requested, the EMS Program will provide child specific emergency management education. 

1. EMS Night Out

   The Nationwide Children's Hospital EMS program believes that it is imperative that EMS providers have access to expert pediatric education and we are committed to improving access to that education. We welcome community EMS providers to join us for our quarterly EMS Night Out events. Participants can network with community EMS agencies, Nationwide Children's EMS, ER, and transport staff, as well as learn about current issues in pediatric education, receive free continuing education (CE), and have a chance to talk with content experts.  

2. Critical Concepts in Airway Management

   Critical concepts in pediatric airway management is a comprehensive course for EMS with a combined lecture/hands-on format that discusses the challenges of the pediatric airway and its anatomy, evaluation techniques, difficult airway in the pediatric setting, selecting appropriate airway equipment and post-advanced airway management. 

3. EMS Lectures

   • Triage and Assessment of the Critically Ill or Injured Child
     • includes growth & development and state trauma triage guidelines
   • Newborn Resuscitation
   • Medical Emergencies
     • includes seizures, sepsis, shock, DKA, apparent life threatening events, and EMS communication
   • Cardiac Emergencies
     • includes chest pain, arrhythmias, defects
   • Trauma Management
     • includes epidemiology, how kids are different
   • Burn Management
   • Transporting Children with Special Healthcare Needs
   • Children with Special Healthcare Needs

   Cost: To Be Determined

4. Simulation

   Simulation plays an integral part in EMS training, from the psychomotor exam of the NREMT National Registry test, to Advanced Cardiac Life Support training (ACLS). The Nationwide Children’s Hospital EMS Outreach and Education Program utilizes a variety of tools, from low fidelity task trainers and patient manikins to high fidelity simulation scenarios to give prehospital professionals experience and confidence to safely assess, treat, and transport pediatric patients. Through collaboration with the expert Nationwide Children’s Simulation Program we are able to provide additional immersive training opportunities for EMS. To learn more, please visit our simulation program page.

5. Sports Medicine

   The “On Field Management of the Down Spine Injured Athlete” curriculum developed by Sports Medicine emphasizes coordination protocols for team physicians, athletic trainers, and EMS personnel in order to ensure safe, rapid care to injured athletes. To learn more, contact the Sports Medicine Program at 614-355-6039.

6. Stop the Bleed

   The American College of Surgeons and Hartford Consensus Bleeding Control Basic (BCon) Course v 1.0 is designed for individuals who have little or no medical training but who may be called upon as immediate responders to provide initial trauma care and bleeding control to a victim of traumatic injury prior to the arrival of emergency medical services (EMS) or in an austere environment.

   Cost: Tourniquets are required for this class. Please contact the EMS outreach office to order. 

All EMS patient care reports for Emergency Department (ED) admissions must be faxed to 614-355-3182 or printed and given to the Emergency Communication Center (ECC) specialist. Please update your computer software to include this fax number. EMS agencies using electronic patient care reporting (ePCR) systems may set up their system to perform auto-faxing to this fax number. If your system is not capable of auto-faxing, you may manually fax or print your report and give it to the ECC.

It is the expectation that a patient care report be completed by EMS and left at the receiving facility at the time of transfer of patient care from EMS to hospital personnel. The Ohio Division of EMS (2009) issued the following statement regarding EMTs and Emergency Medical Record:

“It is the strong opinion of the EMS Board that a run report should be left at the receiving facility as soon as possible after the patient’s care has been completed and successfully transferred to the receiving staff. As stated above, the run report is necessary for the receiving hospital and treating physician to provide appropriate medical care to the patient. If the EMT is unable to leave a complete run report, then they should leave an abbreviated version at the bedside, in a format determined by the local medical director, with all of the information they have available at that time.

This should include, but is not limited to:

• Patient’s full name
• Age
• Chief complaint
• History of present illness/Mechanism of injury
• Past medical history
• Medications
• Allergies
• Vital signs with documented times (include initial vital signs and vital signs just prior to transfer with additional vital signs only if the patient became unstable enroute)
• Prehospital assessment and interventions along with the timing of any medication or intervention and the patient’s response to such interventions (i.e. adenosine given with no change in cardiac rhythm)

Note: The abbreviated version of the run report does not take the place of a complete run report.”

To improve the availability and quality of Ohio’s EMS services, the Division of EMS requires all EMS organizations to implement ongoing peer review and performance improvement (PI) programs. The EMS Coordinator performs all patient follow up for pre-hospital PI in a confidential manner in accordance with the Central Ohio Trauma Systems Pre-hospital Regional Protocol. Requests for patient follow up can be made by the EMS provider caring for the patient.

We strive to return clean EMS equipment in a timely manner to all agencies outside of the Franklin County I-270 loop through our contracted shipping service. We rely on Franklin County agencies inside the I-270 loop to retrieve their own equipment by waiting for it to be removed from the patient or by returning at a later time for pick up.

All equipment must be clearly labeled with the agency’s full name to ensure prompt return delivery. Please use permanent ink and refrain from using agency initials. There are many departments that share the same name so a full address or the name of the city will aid in prompt return delivery.

We make every effort to return all EMS equipment to its rightful owner based on equipment labeling. All Franklin County equipment and unlabeled equipment will be stored in the cabinet outside of trauma room 1/2 or in a loose equipment box in the squad room.

To inquire about the status of your equipment, please contact our Medical Equipment Supplies Technician at 614-722-5969.

• Ohio Division of EMS
• Central Ohio Trauma Systems
• The OSU Center of EMS
• Medflight
• Nationwide Children's Simulation
• PALS Education
• Pediatric Trauma Society
• Emergency Medical Services for Children