Office of Emergency Medical Services

West Virginia Office of
Emergency Medical Services
350 Capitol Street
Room 425
Charleston, WV 25301

Toll Free:	1-888--747-8367
OEMS Phone:	(304) 558-3956
OEMS Fax:	(304) 558-8379
Trauma Phone:	(304) 290-9307
Trauma Fax:	(304) 558-8379

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• Jul

News archive: Jul

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Zachary Higgins Recognized

Dr. Rahul Gupta, West Virginia Commissioner for Public Health, Kenneth Tyree, West Virginia State Fire Marshall and Vicki Hildreth, Coordinator for the EMS for Children program awarded 13-year-old Zachary Higgins several awards and commendations, including a Junior Mountaineer Award and medal from the Governor's office, along with a Certificate of Recognition from WVOEMS EMSC program for the heroism he displayed on March 29, 2015. Zachary, who is challenged by Down's Syndrome, saved his father's life when the camper trailer they were sleeping in caught fire. At great risk of his own life, Zachary woke up his father, George Frankowski, and helped him out of the trailer with only minutes before the entire structure was fully engulfed in flames.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Local News Discusses EMSC Communication Boards

WOWK TV, the CBS affiliate for the Huntington-Charleston television market, has done a news piece on the EMSC-funded Communication Boards. The report may be found here http://www.wowktv.com/story/29629116/communication-boards-could-help-assist-patients-that-cant-speak.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Minimum OEMS Priority 1 Trauma Team Activation Criteria Updated

To be consistent with the new American College of Surgeons “Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient 2014” guidelines that went into effect July 1, 2015, the minimum OEMS Priority 1 Trauma Team Activation (TTA) criteria has been updated to include: • Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) < 9 (less than 9) • Gunshot wounds to extremities proximal to the elbow/knee. In addition, the WV EMS Special Operational Policy and Treatment Protocol 9103 “Field Trauma Triage” has been updated to correspond with these criteria changes and will go into effect August 1, 2015. In review the “minimum OEMS P1 TTA criteria” are: a. CONFIRMED blood pressure <90 mm Hg at any time in adults or age specific hypotension in children; b. Respiratory compromise or in need of an emergent airway; -Includes intubated patients who are transferred from another facility with ongoing respiratory compromise c. Intubated patients transferred from the scene; d. Transfer patients from other hospitals receiving blood to maintain vital signs; e. Gunshot wounds to abdomen, neck, or chest or extremities proximal to the elbow/knee; f. Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) < 9 (less than 9) with mechanism attributed to trauma; g. Emergency physician discretion. All of the WV trauma centers have been notified of this change. The revised 9103 protocol can be found online.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

First Responder Appreciation Days

WVU has announced that they are happy to able to offer another special ticket opportunity to First Responders for the upcoming football season. This year’s First Responder Appreciation games are the Liberty game on Sat., Sept. 12 at 3 p.m. and the Iowa St. game on Sat., Nov. 28, time TBD. To purchase the $20 ticket for the Liberty or Iowa St. games, fans can visit http://ev10.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/EVExecMacro?linkID=wvu&evm=prmo&RSRC=&RDAT=&caller=PR and enter the promo code THANKS to select the desired game and follow the steps to purchase tickets. If you have any questions, please contact the WVU Ticket office at 1-800-WVU GAME

Communication Boards Added to Ambulances Statewide

West Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services, EMS for Children Program purchased communication board used to communicate with nonverbal patients for every transporting unit in the state of West Virginia.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

EMS ECG STEMI Training

The American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline in West Virginia is sponsoring two free one-day training sessions on STEMI. Each day of training will consist of "12-Leads Made Easy: The Basics of STEMI Recognition” in the morning and “Beyond the STEMI Basics” in the afternoon. Lunch will be provided. For questions concerning this training event, please contact the Mission: Lifeline Director in WV, Cynthia A. Keely at (304) 720-7837 or Cynthia.keely@heart.org.