Dr. Joel Edminster: Vote yes to continue support for Spokane’s EMS system

By Joel Edminster, M.D.

Crushing chest pain? You can’t speak correctly? You have been involved in a terrible accident? Your best option for identification and appropriate treatment involves early activation of 911 and a robust, well-engineered EMS system response. Spokane Fire Department is a critical member of the Spokane County EMS system and has been a leader in EMS advancements, quality assurance programs, and EMS education and training to ensure that the response you need is there when you need it most.

Spokane voters have recognized the critical need for a strong EMS system in our community by consistently maintaining the local EMS levy since its inception in 1993. That is nearly 30 years of public support for a public health system that is wholly invested in serving the needs of Spokane’s residents during their most frightening and vulnerable moments. Spokane Fire Department’s EMS system is an instrumental element in our local hospitals’ management of emergency care. They play a critical role in the early notification system for time dependent critical illness including heart attack, stroke, trauma and sepsis care. These programs ensure that our citizens get delivered to the most appropriate medical facility with advanced notification to receiving teams who are prepared for their arrival when critical interventions can’t be delayed. Involvement of our 911 systems during these types of emergencies is consistently associated with shorter times to critical intervention in the field and in the hospitals.

You may want objective evidence that your prior levy support has been a worthy community investment. That body of evidence is overwhelming both locally and nationally, and clearly demonstrates that well-trained, well-educated EMS providers with robust quality improvement programs are associated with better hospital outcomes. Locally, though we were already meeting national standards, we’ve worked to reduce the time it takes for 911 communication specialists to recognize the need for bystander CPR and initiate that critical intervention. That effort helps ensure our residents have the best chance for meaningful recovery after cardiac arrest. That effort helps ensure our residents have the best chance for meaningful recovery after cardiac arrest. “Door-to-Balloon” and “Door to Needle” times are a quality metrics measured in hospitals to track how quickly we can complete critical treatments that are tied to improved outcomes in heart attack and stroke care with the clock starting on arrival to the emergency department.

As an emergency physician practicing medicine at one of our community’s largest hospitals I can attest to the importance of a quality EMS system as a partner in consistently achieving these metrics. When “time is tissue” we want all players operating at their best, including our colleagues in the field that give us a head start with field interpretation of 12 lead ECGs to identify heart attacks and advanced stroke scoring systems to identify patients that will need the regions most advanced therapies for stroke care. Time to administration of antibiotics in sepsis is proven to be shorter when sepsis is recognized in the field with advanced notification to receiving facilities. Your EMS crews are trained to recognize sepsis and initiate targeted fluid resuscitation in the field so that we, again, get that head start when we treat your emergencies in the hospital setting. The list goes on; this is money well spent.

The lives impacted by our robust EMS system over the past 30 years, and funded by citizen support, is astounding. Our EMS providers are leaders in resuscitation with survival rates that rival the best systems in the nation. This type of success requires training, education and a rigorous quality improvement process. Citizen support by community involvement with Spokane Fire Department programs including public education for CPR and AED use, PulsePoint notification for citizen CPR and financial support through continuation of the EMS levy is necessary for this type of success to continue and improve.

In addition to the day-to-day commitment to the most critical emergencies, Spokane Fire Department has helped to tackle and address local emergencies and needs outside of the usual 911 responses. They have provided medical support for vulnerable citizens without housing and those requiring emergency shelter during natural disasters, cold snaps and heat waves. They help provide community assistance and support to citizens in need through the CARES Team. When an infectious disease pandemic confronted our nation, they responded, adapted and ensured that our citizens received the necessary care they required on the front lines when it mattered most, sometimes making sacrifices that were very difficult for their families and loved ones at home. They provide service during our large community events, ensuring safety so our citizens can run Bloomsday, play at Hoopfest, and otherwise remain vibrant and active.

Spokane is a strong, exciting and healthy community. Let’s continue to support the systems in place that keep us that way. Please vote YES for the EMS Levy. Want to learn CPR? Contact your local fire department. Learn more about PulsePoint by downloading the app. Be a partner in a healthier community.

Dr. Joel Edminster, of Spokane, is an emergency medicine physician at Sacred Heart Medical Center. He serves as medical director for the Spokane Fire Deptartment, Spokane Valley Fire Deptartment and Spokane County Fire District 9.