It’s winter, and the cold presents unique challenges to first responders. If you didn’t do it this year, take the time now and before next winter to take stock of your equipment and winterize your first responder kit. Here are five the steps to take: 

Medical providers have long used pulse oximeters as a quick and easy way to assess blood oxygen levels. However, the amount of CO2 a person expires is an equally useful piece of information that provides key details about ventilation. Capnography provides clear data about the amount of CO2 expired at each stage of respiration. Using capnography during medical suction can reduce the risk of hypoxia and provide additional details about patients at risk of serious suction-related complications.

Medical suctioning can save lives, prevent aspiration, and reduce the risk of surgical and dental complications. But as with all medical procedures, suctioning poses some risks, especially with a rushed or unskilled technique.

Medical suction can save lives when it’s properly performed. However, improper technique can make an emergency situation worse, causing potentially catastrophic injuries. The right training for your paramedic team can maximize their job effectiveness and even save lives. Here’s what your team needs to know about safe medical suction.

Whether you’re a doctor, nurse, or EMS professional, treating patients in an emergency scenario is stressful and exhausting. Competent, compassionate care often requires working as quickly as possible while minimizing needless distractions. Many providers skip lunch and breaks, ignore their own personal needs, and work hour after hour in frigid temperatures or on empty stomachs.

Medical suction is one of the most fundamental treatments in emergency response. Whether you are clearing vomit from an unresponsive patient, controlling bleeding in a trauma victim, or visualizing the cords during intubation, your portable suction unit is one of the most important tools in your EMS arsenal.

Your team’s airway management is only as good as its medical suction units. Diligent practice, exceptional technique, and skillful assessments cannot compensate for a medical suction unit that does not work well. Sometimes, fixing suction issues is a simple matter of better storage or keeping an extra battery on hand. In other cases, such as those detailed below, it may be time to replace your suction device.

Whether you are an EMS administrator or you work within a hospital setting, there comes a time when old equipment must be replaced. Different agencies will have different bureaucratic processes, but it usually comes down to cost. What do we need, and how much can we spend?

There were more than 5,300 choking deaths in 2021. Aspiration remains alarmingly common and accounts for about 15.8% of community-acquired pneumonia cases. This means airway management remains a critical and life-saving tool for EMS responders. Whether it’s intubating a choking victim, clearing the airway in a patient suffering from pneumonia, or dealing with the aftermath of aspiration, suction catheters are an essential tool in every first responder’s kit.

In 2022, there were 647 mass shootings, and as of mid-year 2023, there have already been more than 300. Tactical medical response requires a different skill set and approach than that required when an elder falls, or a child has a choking episode. Tactical medical injuries are high-stakes, and first responders must provide prompt care in a high-stress environment where split-second decisions can be a matter of life and death.