EMS News Briefs from Mike McEvoy

EMS Coordinator Mike McEvoy, Ph.D., NRP, RN, CCRN
NYSAFC EMS Committee

Addiction Referral App for EMS
MATTERS Network (Medication for Addiction TreatmenT and Electronic ReferralS) has an addiction referral app available for any provider in New York to download. It gives you the ability to refer patients to care directly from the scene of an EMS call, something we are often asked to do by patients, families, and friends. To refer a patient, you’ll need an access code, which is m@tt3rs (for now). The link to the mobile app is at the bottom of the MATTERS Network home page here. Definitely worth taking a look at, no matter where you work in New York!

Ebola Training for EMS
While the threat of another Ebola outbreak seems to be calming down, DOH has once again reminded EMS agencies of the need to be able to handle a patient with dangerous biological diseases such as Ebola. Clearly, COVID has upped the knowledge and equipment levels when it comes to managing infectious diseases. An excellent resource for training, consultation, protocols, and other EMS-specific infectious disease concerns is NETEC. Scope them out here. Consider signing up on their mailing list to keep up on future releases.