The Heroin Epidemic Impacts EMS

Anyone working in EMS can attest to the dramatic rise in opioid emergencies. It seems the heroin epidemic has spread to every corner of our country, and as it impacts the public, so it impacts emergency responders charged with treating and transporting these patients.

As emergency medical professionals, we are continually improving our skills and techniques. And there’s no more critical area than airway management. So, today we’re offering several important websites that provide educational and technical guidance on improving airway management skills in the field.

We tend to think of prehospital suctioning as a simple, straightforward treatment. You assemble your equipment, prep the patient, turn on the unit, and get to work clearing the airway. Easy, right?

You never know what a shift might bring. Each time you report to duty, you have no idea what the day will hold. Which is why you must be prepared for anything. Whether it’s a natural disaster that suddenly descends on your community or an MCI on the interstate, sending critical patients to area hospitals and closing major thoroughfares, you and your crew must be ready for whatever unfolds.

As you approached the patient, you could see instantly that he had multi-system trauma. While darting across a busy interstate, the young man had been struck by a pickup truck, which was now parked farther up the roadway, its windshield and front bumper exhibiting the damage of a high-speed impact. The patient was unconscious, his limbs splayed. He had massive head and facial trauma and deformity to both legs. Each gasping exhalation produced a bloody froth. Your mind immediately inventoried the injuries and you set to work.

Emergencies can happen anywhere. Wherever humans go, medical emergencies will follow, regardless of time of day, year, or location. It would be nice if every EMS call occurred indoors, under well lit and environmentally stable conditions. But that's usually not the case. In fact, some medical emergencies are the result of the patient being exposed to extreme weather, which affects not only the patient, but also the rescuers and their equipment. And in the case of vital tools like your portable suction unit, they, like you, had better be up to the task.

Welcome to our SSCOR monthly newsletter. Each month, we will focus on the latest EMS preparedness news, keeping you up on the latest trends in emergency response, education, and training.

Anyone in the medical field can attest to the importance of suction. How else could we clear a patient’s airway were it not for the use of suction? When you think of all the arenas in which suction is used—throughout hospitals, in the prehospital setting, and just about any place treatment is provided—it’s impossible to imagine patient care without it.

Respiratory emergencies are among the most critical patients you will encounter as an EMS professional. If the patient is unable to maintain airway patency, or you are unable to correct the underlying issue, there is no hope for his or her recovery. And when these critical situations are compounded by complications in the field, your patient's chances are reduced even further.

When we think of critical suction scenarios, we tend to envision our most serious patients: the elderly cardiac who arrested at a local restaurant, having just finished a hearty meal; the multisystem trauma patient involved in a high-speed, head-on collision; or the unresponsive overdose who collapsed outside the nightclub. These are the patients who stand out in our minds when we reflect on critical suction scenarios.