Another successful SUMMIT on the books! As we reflect on the events of the last week, once again the team at ZOLL would like to congratulate the 2019 Pulse Award Winners. We are truly lucky to have so many passionate, driven and talented professionals as customers – we even pinched ourselves a few times!
Each year, ZOLL recognizes EMS professionals who strive to use data solutions to improve patient, financial and operational outcomes. We are all aware of the obstacles to collecting, analyzing and actioning data, particularly in EMS. Between struggles with poor quality data, non-integrated or siloed software, being short-staffed and complicated or non-existent reporting systems – the challenges can feel insurmountable.
Despite all of these obstacles and unfettered by “what’s always been done” our winners push the boundaries of traditional EMS practices and in doing so, save their organization money, time and resources, which enables their teams to save more lives within their communities.
“Our mission with this program is to acknowledge deserving individuals who derive insights from the data they collect to make life-saving decisions,” said Alex Moghadam, President of ZOLL Data Management. “No matter how many dashboards you generate, graphs you chart, or reports you see, patient outcomes and business performance won’t improve if you’re not making smart decisions based on that data.”
This year, we have another awesome group of winners. Please join us in congratulating these individuals for their phenomenal commitment to improving EMS. In the upcoming days and weeks, look for individual blog posts highlighting their individual achievements.
Corey Martin, Director of Innovative Practices, MedTrust
Corey believes in adjusting the system to meet targeted goals and using the data from the ZOLL platform to provide efficiencies and transparency in all areas. In part because of Corey’s data-driven efforts, Medtrust has experienced 400% growth in the last 2 years using the ZOLL platform, and is still growing!
Michael Riley and Erich Scheunemann, Fire Fighter/Paramedic and Assistant Chief (respectively) of Anchorage Fire Department
Using the Zoll systems improved clinical care and operations and made it possible to “make the case” for programs such as the AFD CORE Team by magnifying the issues/needs within the community. Scheunemann and Riley established a successful intervention model that resulted in a 60% reduction in EMS usage, saving time, money and lives. Read More
Jeffrey Greenway, Billing Administrator, Thorne Ambulance Service
Jeff Greenway has been instrumental in Thorne’s implementation and early success using Billing Pro, making it possible for them to meet their objectives and reduce billing lag time. This has improved work flows significantly, streamlining billing and invoicing to maximize reimbursements while reducing the time it takes to collect.
Julie Mickow, Collections Specialist, Mayo Clinic
Julie Mickow has been with the Mayo Clinic for 22 years. In her time there, she has held every role in the revenue stream and has been instrumental in streamlining many back-end functions, including payment posting, denial management and collections management. Julie has also been the sole manager of the revenue recapture program in MN, recouping well over a half million dollars of revenue annually.
Lauren Emanuelson, “Race to the Top” Coordinator, Advanced Medical Transport.
The “Race to the Top” program was originally developed in 2014 with the assistance of physician experts, medical centers and biomedical manufacturers. As of 2018, Lauren has guided the program to improve survivability from cardiac arrests in their service area. Using data pulled from the ZOLL X-Series monitors to dissect cardiac arrest episodes down to the second, AMT tweaked their protocols to optimize their efforts and “Race to the Top” was recognized with the 2016 AMBY Award for the best Clinical Outcome Project with resuscitation numbers among the best in the nation. Read More
Mark Weade, Lieutenant, Upper Arlington Fire Division
Mark takes it one step further and uses the data he’s collected to communicate with the patient’s primary care physician to improve clinical care and recommend home modifications, coordinating with appropriate agencies for the right treatment at the right time. His ability to implement fall risk reduction tools and safety assessments has saved lives.
Robert Morgan, System Support Manager, Lifeguard Ambulance
Morgan excels at finding opportunities for operational efficiency that result in patients receiving needed care in less time, as well as streamlining Lifeguard’s transfer process between facilities. For example, Robert’s data analysis allowed Lifeguard to implement a STAT transfer process between facilities that optimized the placement of patients and increased the occupancy rate at one of their facilities from around 70% to 90%.
EMS Division, Cosumnes Fire Department
In 2016, the EMS Division embarked on the creation of the first EMS Master Plan for the Cosumnes Fire Department. This plan included the use of medical device and patient care reporting data to identify areas where they could impact comprehensive change to patient care delivery.
Steve Myers, Director of Patient Access, Mobile Medical Response
Steve works tirelessly to be proficient with the software applications and tools at his disposal in order to position Mobile Medical Response as a leader in EMS. He’s MMR’s resident Crystal Reports expert, providing over 150 auto-generated reports daily to highlight important details, trends and analytics.
Thank you to everyone who applied or nominated an extraordinary EMS professional in their lives.
And one more thing…
On the eve of National EMS Week, we’d like to extend a wider thank you to our entire EMS family for all that you do. We want to acknowledge the extraordinary lengths EMS providers go to in order to save lives – and to be there for people on what quite often is the worst day of their lives. From safeguarding our communities to working tirelessly to provide those in need with high quality, critical care – you truly make the world a better place every day you show up for a shift.
If you are looking for inspiration on how to celebrate EMS Week, EMS Strong has some great recommendations!