"Verifying the mileage is not "impossible," it's part of the job. Our service does 85,000+ 911 calls per year, and our billing contractor routinely verifies miles. Crews do exact miles, but would you want a mistake by a…"
Social and Professional Network
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Skip Kirkwood
- Male
- Wake Forest, NC USA
- United States
- EMS Chief
Last On: 2:00AM, 26 May 13
- Blog Posts (6)
- Discussions (1992)
- Events
- Groups (27)
- Photos
- Photo Albums
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Skip Kirkwood's Groups
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Violence towards EMS
12 members
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National Association of …
175 members
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EMS Economics
24 members
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EMS Insider
106 members
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Remembering Jim Page
64 members
Skip Kirkwood's Discussions
It's time to start reporting incidents of violence against EMS personnel!!!
3 Replies
Started this discussion. Last reply by Dana Neal Apr 16.
NON-PUNITIVE "CLOSE CALLS" INCIDENT REPORTING - EVENT reporting!
8 Replies
Started this discussion. Last reply by Skip Kirkwood Mar 21.
Are your community's law enforcement and EMS agencies prepared to work together effectively in the event of a "rapid mass murder" attempt?
37 Replies
Started this discussion. Last reply by Ben Dowdy Jan 22.
Skip Kirkwood's Page
Latest Activity
Skip Kirkwood replied to zee's discussion Economic impact of EMS clinical /field internship."And in general, you get what you pay for.
Medical schools figured this out a long time ago - you can't train interns and residents in rural hospitals, because there isn't sufficient patient volume or acuity to provide a meaningful…"
Skip Kirkwood replied to zee's discussion Economic impact of EMS clinical /field internship."I don't know any schools that pay hospitals or EMS agencies to allow clinical exposure for students. If they do - ridiculous. You need those students for your future workforce - and creating a next generation is a professional…"
Skip Kirkwood replied to Bill Eyford's discussion Helmets Inside Ground Ambulances"Scare the patients? Probably not so much due to a helmet, but the ride?
Or, we could get something like this, and paint it pink?
This is one worn by USAF Pararescue on current deployments. Pretty well evaluated, I think.
"
Skip Kirkwood replied to Bill Eyford's discussion Helmets Inside Ground Ambulances"That would be the "traditional" configuration of the fire helmet, with the large gutter edges, etc. The DOD has been spending big bucks on helmets that work for vehicle crew, but we don't even want to start to think about the…"
Skip Kirkwood replied to Bill Eyford's discussion Helmets Inside Ground Ambulances"If you want head protection, might as well get some ballistic protection and some communications space built in..... http://tnvc.com/shop/crye-precision-airframe-ballistic-helmet/
"
Skip Kirkwood replied to Bill Eyford's discussion Helmets Inside Ground Ambulances"Hard to gather much data from within one organization.
Contact Dr. Nadine Levick at the EMS Safety Foundation. She has been advocating for the wearing of helmets in the back of moving ambulances for years - and she's enough of a…"
Skip Kirkwood replied to Kyle Czarnecki's discussion "Quickest and Easiest""I'm just trying to make the logical connection. Feds don't have the authority to build public safety or public health systems in states - it's not a constitutionally-delegated power, so it belongs to the states. That the…"
Profile Information
- Primary Role in EMS
- EMS Chief
- Primary Agency/Department Type
- Municipal Agency
- Primary Department/Agency Name
- Wake County (NC) EMS Division
- Department/Agency Web Site
- http://wakegov.com/ems
- Years in EMS/Public Safety
- 35
- Other Past or Current Departments
- Area Ambulance Authority, Cedar Rapids, IA-Chief
Munroe Regional EMS, Ocala, FL - Executive Director
Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, OR-Batt. Chief - EMS Officer
Oregon State EMS Division-Chief
Memorial Hospital of Burlington County, NJ-Paramedic
UMDNJ-EMS, Newark, NJ-Paramedic
International Life Support, Honolulu, HI
U. S. Navy Hospital Corps - HM2(SS) - Submarine Corpsman
- My Training:
- TEEX Enhanced Incident Management-Unified Command Course
Executive Fire Officer certificate, USFA
Chief Medical Officer designation, CPSE
J.D., Rutgers Univ.
M.S., Central Michigan Univ.
NREMT-P since 1983
- About Me
- Proud father of Elizabeth and Devin
Married to Natalie 23 years
Bagpiper and founder of the Wake & Distict Public Safety Pipes and Drums
IC/Planning Section Chief
- Day Job
- Career EMS officer, educator, consultant
- I Love Being in Fire/EMS Because
- it's a great way to serve the community, and because EMS people are great people!
- Relationship Status
- Married
Skip Kirkwood's Blog
Situational Awareness, Scene Safety, and Prayers for Comrades
What a week. Friday a mass shooting in Binghamton, NY, and today three police officers killed in Pittsburgh, PA. Following the week when 8 were murdered in a nursing home in Carthage, NC. Please keep the families of the fallen officers, and our EMS colleagues who had to respond to thesescenes, in our thoughts and prayers.
So - how do we help to prepare ourselves situations like this? And how do we keep ourselves from becoming victims?
We probably need to spend some time,… Continue
So - how do we help to prepare ourselves situations like this? And how do we keep ourselves from becoming victims?
We probably need to spend some time,… Continue
Posted on April 4, 2009 at 6:29pm — 5 Comments
Embracing the "public safety" aspects - Steve Berry's closing keynote
In his closing keynote at EMS TODAY, Steve Berry (addressing public perception of EMS) urged listeners to adopt some of the professionalism of our public safety counterparts-- fire, law enforcement and the military. He believes we’re a mix of medical and public safety, but that in order to cement an image of EMS in the public’s mind, we should accept that the public affiliates us more with public safety than the medical profession, and we should work with that perception rather than against it.… Continue
Posted on March 28, 2009 at 5:00pm — 51 Comments
The EMS Labor Movement - or Lack Thereof? What's the story?
Many of the posts on this network site, and others, bemoan the plight of poor, overworked, underpaid, and under-respected EMS providers.
Yet, the EMS community does not seem to have an active labor movement working to improve this environment.
I must confess that I'm not a union guy - I'm a chief in a right-to-work, no collective bargaining for public employees state. So the situation probably works to my advantage - maybe. But I am curious.
It seems that much… Continue
Yet, the EMS community does not seem to have an active labor movement working to improve this environment.
I must confess that I'm not a union guy - I'm a chief in a right-to-work, no collective bargaining for public employees state. So the situation probably works to my advantage - maybe. But I am curious.
It seems that much… Continue
Posted on February 14, 2009 at 12:39pm — 14 Comments
What research would help us do EMS better?
I was reading the March 2009 issue of Prehospital Emergency Care (for those who don't read it, it is the major peer-review journal devoted to EMS in the US).
I was excited to see, buried amongst the clinical and pseudo-clinical research abstracts, a few studies that might help us run our services better. One was a before and after study of the impact of implementing power stretchers in a large county EMS agency.
We've gt a ton of clinical research going on - the physicians… Continue
I was excited to see, buried amongst the clinical and pseudo-clinical research abstracts, a few studies that might help us run our services better. One was a before and after study of the impact of implementing power stretchers in a large county EMS agency.
We've gt a ton of clinical research going on - the physicians… Continue
Posted on February 7, 2009 at 10:48am — 39 Comments
Creating a "culture of safety" in the EMS community
Hate is a strong word.
I HATE hearing about medics getting injured, disabled, killed in the line of duty.
Since I play the bagpipes and I'm a public safety guy, I go to more than my fair share of public safety funerals. It is distressing to see the impact of these mostly-unnecessary, mostly-preventable deaths on friends, families, agencies, and communities. It's hardened me a good bit over the years - to the point where I don't feel at all bad about dropping the… Continue
I HATE hearing about medics getting injured, disabled, killed in the line of duty.
Since I play the bagpipes and I'm a public safety guy, I go to more than my fair share of public safety funerals. It is distressing to see the impact of these mostly-unnecessary, mostly-preventable deaths on friends, families, agencies, and communities. It's hardened me a good bit over the years - to the point where I don't feel at all bad about dropping the… Continue
Posted on February 4, 2009 at 8:16pm — 28 Comments
Comment Wall (34 comments)
- At 12:55pm on April 11, 2012,
John Crossett said… - Hey I have a question I think you may be able to help me with. But I don't want to make it public because I'm employer is on jems. Would you be willing to help me out? My email is John.c.Crossett@gmail.com. I'd be willing and wanting to talk to you on the phone do better communication.
- At 10:02pm on July 15, 2010,
Nathan said… - Sorry to hear about your heart surgery. Get well soon and take care of yourself. We all NEED you alive and making things happen! Hope your feeling better soon.
- At 1:00pm on March 10, 2010,
Marshall said… - Mr. Kirkwood,
I read your blog "What research would help us do EMS better?" and I was really intrigued. As a young, aspiring researcher - these questions fascinate me more than the clinical questions. I was wondering if you could provide me more insight (and from your experiences) into what would help administrators/managers/agencies "do EMS better."?
Kind Regards,
Marshall
- At 6:48pm on March 5, 2010,
Tom Bouthillet said… - Hey, Skip! I was hoping to run into you in the exhibit hall but so far no luck! I attended Dr. Myers session today on APPs. Good stuff! You truly have an EMS system to be proud of. Hope all is well!
- At 3:48pm on February 19, 2010,
Dave M said… - Skip, I was reading up on your APP program and wasn't able to find anything on how your first year has gone. Have you published anything on it or can you give me an idea of how it went both operationally and clinically? It is a very interesting concept and I am very interested in learning more about your program.
Dave.
- At 8:51am on February 12, 2010,
Daved van Stralen said… - Skip, you do not follow the typical arc of public safety officers who protect their careers in their final promotions. In the same vein as Jim Page and Ron Stewart (who I first met in 1973 and ’75 respectively), you use your depth of experience to create important improvements in EMS and direct your wisdom to support those new to our field. This will shape the future of EMS more than improving what we do. This will create a new field with a unique body of knowledge that requires a specific way of reasoning and thinking (epistemology).
- At 3:23pm on February 10, 2010,
Bob Sullivan said… - Skip, were you a corpsman or a corpse-man? The latter sounds scarry:)
- At 1:54pm on February 10, 2010, Dave M said…
- Skip, Thanks for posting the link on the story about the 17 year old. I'm going to a seminar on Documentation on the 24th and this is one of the big reasons why I harp on the subject. If you find others, please pass them on and I would be interested in learning the lessons that they teach.
Dave.
- At 10:19pm on January 18, 2010, Daved van Stralen said…
- Skip, thanks for the compliment on my last posting about leadership. I wonder if leadership is an emergent property from several, multiple, lots of diverse behaviors. That would make leadership difficult to define but possibly easier to implement.
Where do we go from here? Tomorrow morning consider a few exercises that I find produce interesting results:
Work with your staff so they describe their findings in an articulate, objective, and succinct manner. You will have some frustrated people as objective is very hard to do.
Never make a final decision; they have to come up with the final answer.
When someone does something wrong think of three reasons they thought it was the right thing to do. Then make others do that in a group.
Later we can discuss if it is "Ready, Aim, Fire" or "Ready, Fire, Aim" and whether accuracy is more important than precision.
- At 6:51pm on October 26, 2009,
V-fibber said… - I'm looking forward to your lecture in Atlanta this week. I'll introduce myself to you after...Kevin
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