EMS 10 Awardee Stephanie Haley-Andrews and Host Chris Montera

Stephanie Haley-Andrews, Co-Director, EMS Outreach and Education Program, Children’s Hospital Colorado, has transformed the role of the hospital-based EMS liaison. She has taken a historically reactive role (patient follow up, meeting EMS crews upon ED arrival, QA/QI) and turned it into a proactive platform to reach out/serve EMS in the western region and improve the care they provide to their pediatric patients.

In early 2011, she wrote and was awarded a grant to teach PALS to 40 rural EMS providers around the region. Children’s Hospital Colorado is the 5th ranked children’s hospital in the country and serves an area the size of Western Europe. Stephanie left her 12-year role as ED charge nurse to start the full-time EMS Outreach and Education Program at Children’s. To provide credibility to her mission, she went back to school to earn her EMT certification.

Pediatric calls make up 10% of EMS agencies volume and 70% of the EMS agencies in Colorado were rural and volunteer based. That means the majority of EMS agencies have limited exposure to sick children, limited resources to train, and significant geographic challenges in performing the before mentioned. In 2011 alone, Stephanie will have taught 62 lectures/classes at more than 32 EMS agencies, 14 conferences and visited 9 of the 11 state RETACs directly impacting more than 800 EMS providers and other healthcare providers (MD, RN, etc.) She has done this all at no charge to these EMS agencies or organizations.

The EMS 10 Awards, sponsored by JEMS magazine (JEMS.com) and Physio-Control awards the unsung heroes in emergency medical services systems throughout the country. Recognizing those who have developed new ways to improve patient care, response, and systems, the EMS 10 award winners are nominated by their colleagues and peers and then a committee of industry leaders reviews the nominations and chooses the 10 most deserving innovators.

————–

This episode of Innovations in Patient Care podcast is hosted by Chris Montera, EMTP, a former EMS 10 award-winner and host of the EMS Garage podcast.  This program is produced by MedicCast Productions, LLC under a sponsorship agreement with Physio-Control, Inc. More programs covering medical and health topics can be found on the ProMed Network (ProMedNetwork.com) where there are over 45 programs like this one covering all areas of health care.