BY FREDA MIKLIN
GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
South Metro Fire Rescue (SMFR) covers 287 square miles and serves 540,000 residents of the southern metropolitan area of Denver. During 2021, SMFR responded to 44,760 in-district incidents and 29,422 or 66% of those were medical; 20,458 of the medical calls resulted in transport to the hospital. When safely possible, SMFR administers medical assistance in the field that assists and hastens patient care upon arrival at the hospital. When appropriate, SMFR will treat and resolve the medical issue without hospitalization, if that is in the patient’s best interests.
The Emergency Medical Services Division (EMS) of SMFR, “continually searches for the most recent and applicable medical modalities to improve patient outcomes and the patient experience.” In 2018, SMFR EMS began to evaluate the potential use of Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) to assist its paramedics in confirming specific diagnoses in the field to forward their goal of improving patient outcomes. Before putting this process into effect, EMS made certain that it could demonstrate “consistency of results and interpretation, fiscal responsibility, provider capacity, and applicability to the SMFR patient population.” EMS worked with local physicians, especially Dr. Amanda Toney, Pediatric Emergency Ultrasound Director at Denver Health and Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine to make sure that all necessary protocols were in place, including proper training of SMFR paramedics who would administer this important service. The program is run by SMFR EMS Medical Services Director Captain Jodi Peterson under the overall supervision of SMFR EMS Operations Captain Susan Chesnick.
The POCUS system, now available in every SMFR medic unit, consists of a $2,400 probe that is placed on a patient’s heart, lungs, or abdomen, attached by a USB cord to an iPhone. The iPhone is loaded with a free ap that displays the ultrasound to help confirm the diagnosis EMS professionals suspect based on other administered medical protocols, specific to the area of the body that is being scanned. Examples of what the test can determine include whether shortness of breath is as a result of heart failure, COVID-19 or other specific lung issues.
SMFR has been notified by the Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI) that it will be receiving a national award for excellence for its Point of Care Ultrasound program at CFSI’s 2022 National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner & Symposium in Washington DC in April. CFSI is “a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy institute established in 1989 to educate Members of Congress about the needs and challenges of our nation’s fire and emergency services to help them understand how the federal government can support the needs of our local first responders.” It counts among its caucus Colorado U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse, Doug Lamborn and Ed Perlmutter.
So as to document the highly useful results of this program in the hopes of having it implemented throughout the country, EMS’s medical partners have already published over a dozen articles in medical journals and for presentation at medical conferences, including the Military Health Systems Research Symposium last August.
On February 19, SMFR EMS presented a program on Point of Care Ultrasound at the regular meeting of The Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW) at the request of MOWW member Ron Rakowsky, former mayor of Greenwood Village. The program included a demonstration in the use of the POCUS system.
MOWW was started in 1919 to “promote and encourage good citizenship, patriotic education, military and public service, national security and youth programs.” Rakowsky, a retired Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, received The Outreach Service Medal award at the meeting for his efforts as chair of the MOWW Denver Chapter Law and Order Committee and for his efforts in having MOWW events “covered by The Villager, the local newspaper for Greenwood Village.”
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