EMSAAC BOARD
MEETING MINUTES
1600 N. Indian Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA
10:00AM to 4:00 PM
1.
Welcome & Introductions:
Meeting
called to order at 10:25, Attendance list attached. Virginia Hastings
telephoned in to assist in quorum requirements.
3. Consent Calendar:
Minutes Andires/Osur A with corrections noted. Treasurer report will be
reviewed at the May meeting due to A. Lathrops absence.
4.
Membership: No new members
5.
Board Nominations: M. Osur presented the
following nomination committee recommendations: President Steve Andriese,
President-Elect Nancy Lapolla, Secretary Bruce Lee, Treasurer Art Lathrop,
Members at Large (six to be selected) Michael Frenn, Leonard Inch, Darlene
Isbell, Virginia Hastings, Chris Le Venton, Michael Osur, Michael Petrie,
Barbara Pletz, John Pritting, Dan Spiess.
Motion to approve Osur/Pletz M/S/A.
6.
Legislative Update: B. Pletz, provided a brief
review of the various bills and provided an update on their current status.
Stressed the importance of limiting the bills we follow to those bills specific
to EMS issues. Pletz requested EMSAAC attendance at a hearing scheduled by
Flores in Fresno regarding the EMS Fund on Thursday May 2nd. G. Jones will asked Dan Lynch to
attend. A discussion and action if
required was focused on the following bills: AB1745 Nakano’s office was very
responsive to EMSAAC’s requests, they are defining qualified physician as board
certified in Toxicology or Infectious Disease.
The volunteer registry will be housed at the EMS Authority. AB 1763 B.Pletz attended a meeting with
Richman, she requested that EMSAAC be added to the list and that SEMS is
followed. The bill was gutted, a committee
will be formed to review this issue
further. AB 1833 EMSAAC/CHEAC/CSAC had a good discussion with the sponsor to
make recommendation for amendments, they worked together on suggested language. AB1919 a letter of support was sent on March
4th. AB 1988 opposed, the bill was gutted, and Task Force is being
formed to study this issue. EMSAAC asked to be included in the task group, ask
to take CCS approved PICU’s out of the Trauma Regulations. AB 2018, Support if amended, letter sent
March 29th requesting EMSA be added to Advisory Board and to include
hospitals. AB 2035 Support if amended,
letter sent March 29th suggest amendment to have hospitals plan
submitted to LEMSA (rather than EMSA) Place the three field hospitals in Contra
Costa, Fresno and Los Angeles. AB 2041 Oppose if not amended to retain the
training requirement in the H&S code section Andriese/Lee M/S/A. AB 2067 Support letter sent March 29th,
Author’s staff will amend to include the local health department. AB 2775
Protects EMS QI. Letter of support sent March 29th. Killed by trial lawyers. SB 851 Oppose. SB
1298 Letter of support sent on March 8th. SB 1565 Support if amended, to include medicine, public health,
EMS in the planning, good use of community colleges, letter sent on March 29th. Issue of concern to act on proposed
legislation when the author is unknown, or that their position is fully
understood. Need for EMSAAC to be
cautious in the future. SB 1695 the author has accommodated all EMSAAC’s
requests, letter of support sent on March 29th, Letter cc’s to EMSA
and EMS Commission.
7. EMT-II: I J. Pritting
recommendations from the task group are to use the National Registry as a
standard test for California and the group is in general support of the draft
regulations. D Smiley provided an overview of the proposed regulations. The
numbers of training hours (124 total hours) proposed in the draft regulations,
on page 4, was questioned. Dan
addressed the State’s rationale for the additional hours, balance between the
national intermediate vs. trial study 72 hours. The concern is the cost for the rural counties. The State’s proposed hours are based on the
DOT curriculum. An additional concern is the number of hours, 48 vs. trial
study 24 hours. It was recommended that
the EMT-II be held to 36 hours. The
Regulation process and timeline was discussed.
G Jones encouraged each agency to submit their comments by the May 20th
due date.
8.
Vision Committee & Workgroup Update: Access; G.Jones reported that the group is working on their
objectives. Data: S. Andriese reported
that the State was beginning the beta test phase for the data system, but that
a limited number of local EMS Agencies will be able to participate because many
do not collect the required data set.
The State contractors are building the system based on the recommended
data set. The web-based system will be
integrated into the State’s data system, which will include demographic
analysis for comparison. Governance: B.
Pletz reported that objective 15, 16, & 17 have been tabled in the work
group and referred to CSAC and the League to write a joint statement of their
conclusion regarding these issues. CSAC
and the League need to provide a resolution on the final study report. The group
discussed the EMSA director position. The following is the committee’s
recommendation: either a physician or a non-physician could hold The State EMS
Director position, but if a non-physician holds the position, a part-time
physician would be required. Cal-ACEP
would be requested to submit three nominations for this position. Paramedic
Task Group: J. Ogar reported on continuing education as it is related to
quality improvement, they are working on a QI template which could be very
helpful, but needs support from the top-down. Prevention: M. Osur reported that
at the next committee meeting they will have a demonstration of the registry,
it is very near completion. The
prevention minimum data set has been included in the State’s data set, and
wellness promotion is identified on the prevention web site. Finance: M. Frenn
reported that the “white paper” would be submitted and presented at the Vision
conference in December. The issue is
extremely complex and may require multiple solutions to meet the needs of
local, regional and State issues. Ethics: J. McPherson presented a draft
document “Code of Professional
Conduct”, he requests comments of the draft document by May 20th. EMT-I task Force: J. Pritting is the
representative and Bruce Lee agreed to be an alternate EMSAAC
representative. The EMS Authority
would like a recommendation from EMSAAC for the meeting tomorrow regarding a
State test for EMT-I’s. The State has
looked at the National Registry Test as well as other vendor options for the
development of a specific California Standard test. A motion was presented to recommend the National Registry Test as
the State standard. Andriese/Lee M/S/A.
Budget
Impact on EMSA will require a reduction of one staff position and the EMSA
operational budget will be impacted, which means travel will be limited. At this time there will be no impact to the
Regional Agencies or EMSA’s disaster program funding.
EMSA
conducted over 220-paramedic investigation and many background checks. They have also been dealing with Kern
County’s EOA issues.
11. Reporting of Field Issue: N. Lapolla
asked the members present if they had any structure in place to address/notify
families of adverse field treatment outcomes, similar to the JACHO requirement
for in hospital care. This issue was
referred to the Ethics committee for further research and consultation.
12.
EMSAAC Committee Structure: S. Andriese reviewed the committee structure identified
during the July 2001 strategic planning session. He provided a handout
suggesting a format to provide one EMSAAC Board member contact for each of the
eight EMS components. Steve also listed the committees that align under those
categories and identified the current members participating on each committee.
Please review handouts and provide comments to either Steve or Gwen by May 7th.
13.
Roundtable:
Nor-Cal is hosting an open house during EMS week to honor exemplary system
participants. They are identified on the Wall of Fame. They also award a $250.00 scholarship in
honor of the First EMS Director at this special event. Solano is moving their office. They have
completed their first annual report on the ambulance franchise and they have
received a small amount of money to develop a Trauma Plan. Santa Barbara is recruiting for a CQI/Trauma
Nurse Coordinator position, they have submitted a trial study to the State for
EMT-1 expanded scope for approval.
Imperial: Working on their Trauma Plan and Web-based data system. Santa Clara’s ambulance contract is in place
and doing very well. San Mateo is in
the final phase of testing “MED-System” their data system that is integrated
with dispatch and first responder, and AMR transport units are all using this
system as well. San Diego Their Medical
Director, Mel Oates resigned on March 29th. The interim medical director is Gary
Belk. The RSI study has been put on
hold. The final report will be
presented to the Commission in August.
MVEMSA is working on their Trauma Plan as a result of AB430 trauma
funds. The Disaster Standards project
is finishing up it’s last few objectives developing templates for policies and
procedures. The EMSAAC Website has a
section for survey results. Ventura’s
“E-Med System” is live in 2out of 3 providers and the final provider will go
live this week. They are piloting the
web-based Reddi-Net system. The 8th
annual EMS Conference is scheduled for June 14. Coastal Valley is being hit
hard with diversion especially in Sonoma County. They have formed a special committee to look at this issue. They have a “homegrown” reddi-net type
system. They are moving forward with
their trauma site reviews using ACS.
ENA visited with their legislators during May meeting, it was very
productive process. They have an
entry-level scholarship of $500.00 available.
Looking at reviewing the TNCC course.
14. Future Agenda
Items: Review EMSAAC
Website, Medicare Rates, and General Membership
Members in
Attendance
Steve Andriese MVEMSA
Doug
Buchanan MVEMSA
Barry Fisher Ventura EMS Agency
Diane Fisher ICEMA
Michael Frenn Sonoma EMS Agency
Gwen Jones San Diego EMS Agency
Nancy
Lapolla Santa Barbara EMS
Agency
Bruce Lee Coastal Valley EMS
Jim McPherson Santa Clara EMS Agency
Barbara Pletz San Mateo EMS Agency
John Pritting Imperial EMS Agency
Jan Ogar ENA/ San Mateo EMS
Agency
Michael Osur Riverside EMS Agency