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Hazelwood Fire Department among Elite To Earn EMSC State Certification
The Hazelwood Fire Department EMS Division is one of only 14 ambulance services in the St. Louis area and one of 47 statewide to earn EMSC state certification, announced Battalion Chief David Gulley, Medical Officer of the Hazelwood Fire Department.
The acronym EMSC stands for “Emergency Medical Services for Children.” A project was recently launched by the Pediatric Subcommittee of the Missouri State Advisory Committee for EMS (SAC) to help increase the number of ambulance services ready to serve children throughout the state of Missouri. The SAC wants to recognize ambulance services that have made an effort not only to upgrade their pediatric equipment lists to match the recommended one for EMSC state certification, but also to provide training for paramedics on how to use this equipment properly and enhance their pediatric assessment/treatment skills.
The SAC helps ambulance services obtain the proper equipment by either sending them an EMSC recommended list and having them match it or opening doors for them to receive grant funding for the procurement of these items. Also, PALS training is provided for EMS paramedics to educate them on how to use the equipment properly and enhance their pediatric assessment/treatment skills. Once the pediatric equipment is installed and PALS training is finished, an inspection is done on the ambulance unit seeking pediatric certification.
The primary goal for EMSC is to ensure that each child in the state of Missouri receives the right care at the right time with the right provider who has all of the right equipment readily available and education in its use.
“It’s strictly a voluntary program that provides a wonderful opportunity for ambulance services to be recognized as being pediatric ready. A “Shield of Honor” recognition sticker and a certificate to post at the firehouse is given to each ambulance service that passes the inspection and receives EMSC state certification,”said Christine Green, APRN, CCRN, TNS, for the Trauma Program at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center and a member of the Missouri State Advisory Council’s Trauma and Pediatric Subcommittees.
A SAC inspector from SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center, which is one of the state’s three Level I pediatric trauma centers, recently visited Hazelwood Fire Department’s Firehouse #2 to inspect one of the City’s ambulances. It passed inspection with flying colors and now displays the “Shield of Honor” recognition sticker with this message, “Making a Difference in Missouri…One Child at a Time.”
“We are very proud of this EMSC certification, considering the fact that only 14 ambulance services in the St. Louis area have this distinction,” said Hazelwood Fire Chief Jim Matthies. “Our department’s EMS ambulances already had most of the pediatric equipment on EMSC’s recommended list. Thanks to the support of our Hazelwood City Council, we were able to offer PALS training to our EMS paramedics and acquire the remaining equipment we needed to pass the inspection and earn our EMSC state certification. Our EMS firefighter/paramedics are now fully capable of treating child trauma and injuries.”
Emergency Medical Care Needs of Children – Missouri
The #1 and #2 leading causes of injury deaths for children between the ages of 1 and 18 in Missouri are: 1) unintentional motor-vehicle traffic fatalities; and 2) homicides with a firearm.
Missouri has three Level I pediatric specific trauma centers. SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis is one of them.
In 2003, more than 500,000 children under the age of 15 were admitted to an Emergency Department somewhere in the state. Twenty-six percent of these children were treated for injury or poisoning.
Severe asthma and respiratory distress are the most common emergencies for pediatric patients, representing nearly one-third of all hospitalizations among children under age 15. Respiratory infections and asthma represent 27% of all Emergency Department visits in children under the age of 15 in the state of Missouri.
