Speaker 1 0:03

Welcome to the Healthy Matters podcast with Dr . David Hilden , primary care physician and acute care hospitalist at Hennepin Healthcare in downtown Minneapolis, where we cover the latest in health healthcare and what matters to you. And now here's your host, Dr . David Hilden .

Speaker 2 0:19

Hey everybody, it's Dr . David Hiin, your host of the Healthy Matters podcast. As we wrap up season one of the podcast, I wanted to share with you a bonus episode from something we recorded this past summer, A ride along with our emergency medical service teams. There are a lot of components that make up a robust healthcare network, and oftentimes the caregiving starts with these first responders on our ride along . We take a couple calls with them, but of course, we won't get too involved with the incidents themselves out of respect for the individual's privacy. But I wanted to give you a glimpse into the world of emergency medical services and the people who provide them Welcome along. Hey everybody, it's Dr . David Hilden , your host of the Healthy Matters podcast. And as you probably can already tell, we're doing something a little bit different tonight. We are out on a ride along with Hennepin ems, that is the Emergency Medical Services Department of Hennepin Healthcare . And we are out with the paramedics and the fire crews on the streets of Minneapolis. Trying to get a little bit of an insider look of what these first responding men and women do each and every day To join us, we have two of the leaders of HEN and ems, and I am in the backseat of their command vehicle. We have Dr. Nicholas Simpson . Nick is the medical director. He is a physician in EMS and an emergency department physician at Hennepin. We also have the chief of Hennepin ems. Marty, she , they're in the front seat, They're their mind in the show. They've got a computer screen and the calls are coming in fast and furious. Dr . Simpson, is this a typical night for you?

Speaker 3 1:58

It is. It is , uh, it has been busy all summer and continues to be so, so, yes, this is a pretty typical day of the week for us.

Speaker 2 2:07

So it's a Tuesday night, a warm evening in September in downtown Minneapolis. We're gonna see what the night brings for the men and women of hen up and ems. Let's go to our first call. Currently, there's a , um, gentleman, obviously in some distress. He's lying on his back on the sidewalk. What I, what's obviously apparent to me is that the first responders are all very calm. They're talking to him, No one's , um, getting in his face or anything, but it's also quite apparent that it's not clear what's going on. Has this person been the victim of some insult to his body as he had a medical condition? Did he have a stroke? What happened? Why is this , uh, adult human just on the parking lot ground of a strip mall? It isn't clear to any of the first responders. So they're all just calmly talking to the man. He is awake and , uh, they're offering to provide some medical attention. Uh, they don't appear to be too concerned with anything very serious. But from the 50 feet away where we're standing again to provide , uh, this person , uh, privacy, it doesn't look well. Right now. We've got one of the paramedics and the physician, Dr. Simpson, that we're traveling with are putting a blood pressure cuff on, and they're basically doing an initial medical evaluation right here in the parking lot. I'm also struck by the , um, comradery of the first responders. In this case, the firefighters who are also trained emergency medical technicians were right in helping doing things like getting the gurney, making sure the medical providers had everything they need. And frankly, the firefighters are qualified themselves to be emergency medical technicians. So that's one learning point for me is hats off to firefighters. They've been respectful of the public, as have the paramedics, a real , uh, sense of wanting to keep people safe as possible, but also to provide that care in a dignified and respectful way. I , I have , uh, noticed that this evening as well. Rusty, you're one of our paramedics at Hennepin ems. Yes, sir . What do you like about the job?

Speaker 4 4:14

Um, it's always constantly going. Like, I get antsy if I sit for too long. So the high call volume is pretty cool. We seem to be one of the more well known services, so just being a part of that reputation is pretty amazing in itself. It's cool to be kind of on the , uh, front line of ems always coming up with something new,

Speaker 2 4:31

And I'm , um, frankly amazed at how busy you all are. And I know it's maybe not always as busy every single night, but it's busy tonight. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , how do you , uh, how do you process that? Or how do you like care for yourself? Or do you just motor through the night? It's

Speaker 4 4:44

Really good when you develop a relationship with your partners, you're able to kind of, you know, vent and talk with them, compare and contrast ideas and finding out things that work for them, you know, may not work for others, and some things that work for you may work for other people. So just being able to share, have that good camaraderie , really being able to get along with all your coworkers is a big help. That partnership, you know, when you're in the ambulance with someone for 10, 12, 14 hours really makes a difference. You know who you're working with, and that's a big part of being able to make it through the shift.

Speaker 2 5:10

I'm impressed with what you do. Thanks for what you do . Thank

Speaker 4 5:12

You , sir . Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 5:15

So we're looking in the back of a Hennepin Healthcare ambulance , um, through the back door where you put the patient.

Speaker 5 5:20

Okay. So right off the bat, when we open the , the doors, you'll notice we have a power lift for the stretchers. The stretchers are battery powered. Then we load 'em into this , uh, unit, and this unit actually lifts the stretcher up, and then we slide them right in. So it really , uh, helps the , the back. So the paramedics, when I first started, we didn't have any of the stuff. And you're always injuring your back, just lifting patients , lifting the , the patients up . Yeah . And then you're lifting and turning, which is even worse. And this is way safer.

Speaker 2 5:44

It looks like you've got a bench on the side. You've got a , it looks like a captain seat up there facing backwards, who's all back here. When a patient is being transported, obviously one of the medics is driving

Speaker 5 5:54

The ambulance. One drives the ambulance, and then we have , uh, usually probably one, well , obviously one other medic. And then , uh, fire or one of our docs, one of our officers go along with it. So lots of times we take fire with us. Uh , the lot of room, this is one of the bigger ambulances you're gonna see. It's

Speaker 2 6:09

A

Speaker 5 6:09

Room. It is, it's , it's , it's virtually emergency room on wheels. So we have the cardiac monitor defibrillator, we've got all the airway equipment over there, we've got all the medications we

Speaker 2 6:18

Got that looks like a suction container, like an , it looks like the wall of a

Speaker 5 6:21

Hospital. Its, it the same thing. And then , uh, we have the phone, we can talk to the doctors at the hospital. And so when we get to the hospital, they're waiting for us. They know the condition of the patient, we can actually , uh, use telemetry and send the chart to the hospital as well. And so they know what's coming, who's coming, and they're ready for them .

Speaker 2 6:40

So while we're on route to our next call, maybe we could chat about a couple things please. So Marty, you're the chief of the Department of Hennepin ems. How many ambulances do you have? How many are out on the streets at any given? Yeah,

Speaker 5 6:50

Sure. So we have , um, 36 ambulances and one bariatric unit. So really 36 active. But we normally, depends on the time of day. Busy part of the day is noonish to 8:00 PM and there's usually around 24, 25 trucks out down to minimum of 18. And then at night we'll go down to a low of about 12. But you know , that's like three or four in the mornings. You've

Speaker 2 7:13

Gone trucks, these are some pretty souped up trucks.

Speaker 5 7:15

These are , uh, these ambulances are some of the best in the world. So they're , they're very expensive. About $375,000. Not equipped. Um ,

Speaker 2 7:23

That's just for the

Speaker 5 7:24

Vehicle. The vehicle, right. It's , and then you had a power stretcher in there for like another 50 , 60,000, you know , um, cardiac monitor defibrillator about 35,000, and the rest of the equipment is a little over another a hundred thousand dollars. So there's , these are half a million dollar ambulances that are running around.

Speaker 2 7:42

And how many

Speaker 5 7:42

Paramedics? And then we run two paramedics on every ambulance. Not every service does that. Some do one paramedic, one emt, but we we're so busy and we have so much, and we feel that you get much better patient care when you have two paramedics. We , uh, we're , we're fortunate to have such a great EMS service, but we get overwhelmed often. The call volume is up 35% from was 18 months ago. And , uh, what's that from? Great question. Uh , Doc, what's your thoughts?

Speaker 3 8:06

It is a national issue. I don't know what it's from. It seems to still be, I think, some of those things that people neglected during covid or , or maybe still coming back. And not only the medical issues that were left unattended, but also the mental health issues that were left unattended. I , I think we're still kind of catching up from that for

Speaker 5 8:24

Sure. We knew we were gonna have a surge after covid , you know , recited a little bit, but it , uh, far exceeded whatever we anticipated. And so we've had a difficulty in, in hiring people up because the paramedic classes were all shut down as well during c and so no one was producing paramedics and there's been a shortage of paramedics. And finally, just yesterday we had our first new group of paramedics start post Covid , a big group of that, and we'll have another group in November. And then we have an EMT paramedic program that started last week and another group in January. So we're gonna catch up, but it's gonna be a a few months. So,

Speaker 2 8:56

So Dr . Simpson, you're the medical director of ems. Yes. What kind of medical training do the paramedics have and what is the role of the physician, which is you?

Speaker 3 9:06

Yeah, so paramedic training is sort of the highest level of training in the pre-hospital setting. It is typically about a year and a half to two years. And during that time, they get extensive training for basically everything you could imagine from how to deliver babies to how to work with someone who's having chest pain, how to evaluate EKGs. Uh , pretty much the gamut of evaluation outside the hospital.

Speaker 2 9:31

Marty, you were , you were , you were a medic, you were a fire chief, right? Have you delivered any babies?

Speaker 5 9:36

Yeah, well, in training, yes. And so , um, uh, the training, you do a lot of clinical work too. So like, I was assigned to work the OB area at the hospital delivered like 35 babies in the hospital. Uh , did only a couple in the field. We worked a wide variety of things. You work in the hospital, you work in the ed, you work in , uh, detox, you work in the morg, you work in jails, you do everything. So it's really a crash course. And anything medical that can, I enjoyed it. I learned so much. I originally wanted to become a doctor, and , uh, paramedics actually a lot more fun. And so , uh, it's really good you

Speaker 2 10:12

Came to your senses just in time. Marty <laugh> , Nick and I are like , uh, and what's an emt?

Speaker 5 10:18

An EMT is about 160 hours of training, so considerably less. And so EMTs are what a vast majority of of people out there trained in for emergency medicine are . We got a couple programs where we hire people and then send 'em to paramedic school. Um, we get a , a higher caliber of people, more diversity. We , we get to choose people that are really customer service orientated , and then we train them to become paramedics. And it's worked out really well.

Speaker 3 10:43

And the way our system is structured here in, in our service area is that all of our firefighters are EMTs. So they provide , uh, really great first care , uh, in those time sensitive minutes. And then as the paramedics get there, we , we continue to elevate that level of care. And we work really well with our firefighters. Uh , the camaraderie I think is second to none, and they're just phenomenal people to be around.

Speaker 2 11:08

Incident assigned ,

Speaker 3 11:09

Not too far.

Speaker 2 11:10

Who assigns who goes to the calls?

Speaker 5 11:13

So, great question. So the city of Minneapolis, it first goes to the Minneapolis Emergency Communication Center, and then if they determine that it's an ambulances needed, then they forward it on to our communication center. And either one of those communication centers will assign police or fire to the call. So we'll check it out . So our , um, our dispatch center has , uh, huge maps of where they're in the computer does direct , uh, to which ambulance to assign the call, who's closest.

Speaker 2 11:42

So your dispatcher downtown is

Speaker 5 11:44

Doing that ? Yep . Doing, they're , they're , they're repositioning all the vehicles to put them in the optimum space or position for future calls . Call volume with the , with combination, either mental health overdoses or intoxication. Are now, is it 24% of our calls, Doc ? Is that what we got ? Last number we

Speaker 3 12:01

Heard up from

Speaker 5 12:02

19 few years ago ? Yeah. So it's , um, up 5% from just two years ago.

Speaker 2 12:06

So Marty, we've had four calls, or your department has had four calls and the last 90 seconds, that seems pretty busy.

Speaker 5 12:16

Yeah, you know, we do , uh, 90,000 calls a year, so that's about every six minutes on average we do a call, but you know, obviously at 3, 4, 5 in the morning, it slows down a lot. Uh , but , uh, late afternoons , uh, e early evenings , uh, bar closing, I get really busy, but you never know. It just, you know, you will go for 20 minutes and have zero calls, and then in one minute we'll have 12.

Speaker 2 12:39

So night has fallen here in Minneapolis and it's this busy. How do your medics take a breather? Or don't they?

Speaker 5 12:48

Yeah , they , they , they generally don't. They just keep going and call , call up to call . And if you get a chance when we're at the hospital, we can use the restroom and , um, there's a quick little snack room that we have set up for the paramedics to grab a healthy snack and then they go and go. But there's times where they might sit for an hour, which is really rare, but it does happen. Right now we're, we're running call after to call after call.

Speaker 1 13:18

You're listening to the Healthy Matters podcast with Dr . David Hilden . Have a question or a comment for the doctor, become a part of our show by reaching out to us at Healthy Matters at hc m e d.org, or give us a call at six one two eight seven three talk. That's 6 1 2 8 7 3 8 2 5 5

Speaker 5 13:40

Overdose . So we're going to an overdose. So this is person, as all as we know, is they've been given a dose of Narcan, they're unconscious, they are breathing currently and approximately 30 year old male .

Speaker 2 13:55

So Dr . Simpson, you're driving, you slow down for red lights. I do. You did. I mean, I noticed that you

Speaker 3 14:01

Did. I do. In fact, if you look at the, the OSHA data, EMS is actually more dangerous than fire and it's because of accidents. And most commonly they're in intersections. And so I try to take extra special care whenever we're crossing an intersection, especially if it's against the light to watch out for other drivers. Cause we are requesting the right of way with our lights and sirens not demanding it.

Speaker 5 14:24

I don't know if you just noticed that, but , uh, we're going code three through an intersection. There was a north ambulance ahead of us. Yeah . And they actually blocked the intersection for traffic force . So we can go through the intersection. That's

Speaker 2 14:33

What that was. I was wondering what was happening there that ambulance was making sure

Speaker 5 14:38

Blocking the intersection that we ,

Speaker 2 14:41

For us to go through, because that ambulance at this moment wasn't on a code three call. The siren noise seems to change at intersections. Is am I making that up or does that

Speaker 3 14:50

Happen? No, that is, is, that is me. That is intentional. And a lot of the deaths in EMS are from vehicle accidents. And as those intersections are the most dangerous , uh, there's a , a little bit of siren fatigue that the general public can get. And if you don't change up your siren, they can kind of forget you're coming or stop paying attention

Speaker 2 15:10

To you . That correct? I thought I was maybe , uh, imagining

Speaker 3 15:13

That. No, that's when we come up

Speaker 2 15:14

Intersection, the , the timber or whatever the actual sound of the siren change. So we drove up to this scene, it's a neighborhood in South Minneapolis, and , uh, gentleman walking, his dog ran across another , uh, person who didn't appear to be doing okay. And he gave him a dose of Narcan, which is a spray, an antidote for opioid overdose. So that neighbor potentially saved the life of another human being. That neighbors out here walking his dog just , uh, basically did a good samari to paint a picture of what the street corner looks like. We are on a relatively busy street with apartment buildings around the street is lit up. There's a fire truck , there is , there's law enforcement, and then there's us in the paramedics. And then I think what probably isn't too much of a surprise, there's a number of bystanders, ambulances and fire trucks tend to draw a crowd. And so what also strikes me is that the paramedics and the , uh, other first responders are, are working in a very, very public place. And , uh, people are talking to them and they are having to assess the situation for who's the actual patient and where is our help , uh, most needed. I'm struck by what a coordinated effort it is by all the first responders. So this case just strikes me as a doctor, I've seen a lot of overdoses, but what strikes me is what is so important in the very first few minutes of an overdose. And that is the life saving properties of Narcan. The medical drug is called Naloxone. And a citizen of our city had that medication, had the wherewithal to recognize the situation that a fellow citizen was in trouble. I have no idea if they knew each other, gave him the Narcan, and by the time the paramedics arrived, the patient was awake. Now that doesn't mean that patient's outta the woods, but the patient was awake. So I am just struck by the importance of rapid treatment of, in this case, what appeared to be an overdose. The second thing I'm really struck with is that our paramedic team left that citizen with a replacement Narcan kit because most citizens clearly don't have one lying around. This gentleman happened to , and we gave him another one. So that if the , if a similar situation should arrive in the future, this person can save maybe yet another life. It's actually quite remarkable. Okay. So we , we've seen people , uh, intoxicated on an alcohol. Dr . Simpson, tell us a little bit about what you're seeing with the, the opioid

Speaker 3 17:49

Pandemic. Yeah, that is, I mean, that is a tremendous problem in this country. It does not seem to be getting much better. Uh, it is something that plagues every ethnic group, every racial group, every socioeconomic class. It transcends geography. It's, it is really affected many, many lives. And, you know, the opioids are, are a problem because you only have to slip up once, and that could be fatal. I mean , and we see that in our young people. We see teenagers, twenties, thirties, and up all dying of opioid overdoses. And it's a , it's a horrible tragedy.

Speaker 2 18:25

And , and much of its fentanyl. Is that true?

Speaker 3 18:27

Well, to be honest, we don't always know. Uh , people often will think they know what they're purchasing. Uh, sometimes it's fentanyl, sometimes it's heroin, sometimes it's some synthetic variation of fentanyl or other type of chemicals that act similarly, but we don't always know. The

Speaker 5 18:45

Medical examiner will tell you there's no pure anything anymore. So there's no pure cocaine, there's no pure heroin, there's no pure meth, there's no pure anything. There's no pure fat as , as they call it. That's what causes pure problems. So they , uh, people will buy, let's say 10 , uh, 10 doses of fentanyl and, and they get high and they do well. And so then they go back and buy another 10 doses. And that dose is a lethal dose. It's something different. It's something different, and it's totally lethal.

Speaker 2 19:10

So it's catching people , um, from, like you said, Dr . Simpson, all walks of life, very unintentionally. What does someone for either one of you look like, who you , um, when you come upon them, when do you suspect an overdose?

Speaker 3 19:24

Yeah. So often they're , if they're awake, they're quite sleepy and they'll fall asleep when they're talking to you. And as that toone progresses, as they, you know, have more, or it takes more effect , uh, they will often stop talking to you and stop breathing. And that's the, that's the big fear. That's why a lot of folks carry Narcan is to, to try and reverse the effects so that they can start breathing again. And that , uh, it's been a quite helpful thing to have Narcan in the hands of a lot of responders and , and the public. Uh , my only ask is that everyone who gives Narcan calls 9 1 1 and assists with breathing as much as they're able

Speaker 2 19:58

To. Don't just give the Narcan Right . And think that's good

Speaker 3 20:01

Enough. Enough, Right . That that's when I, it could be a detriment, is if you just give the Narcan and you're not doing anything else, you're not calling 9 1 1, you're not trying to reposition them or help them breathe , then I think it could be maybe harmful.

Speaker 2 20:13

It's a really good tip. Yeah . You're suspect of a loved one or someone you come across, you even suspect an overdose. It's good to have the Naloxone or the Narcan. Absolutely . But your first step is to call 9 1 1. Yeah .

Speaker 5 20:23

Yep . And breathing for 'em . So in ems, boy, the vast majority of overdose, I see the people are just virtually now breathing. And so it's important to get our , our quick response time because if they're not breathing for more than five minutes , uh, their chance of survival dramatically decrease. So , but as Doc mentioned, if we can breathe for him or someone can breathe for 'em , um, we can keep him alive for a long time. Much , much better. Yeah .

Speaker 2 20:44

So you're a firefighter, what's your job? I

Speaker 6 20:47

Drive,

Speaker 2 20:47

I work with the hospital. I'm one of the doctors at the hospital. We're recording what happens in public safety in , in Minneapolis. Well,

Speaker 6 20:53

This is it,

Speaker 2 20:53

Brother. Tell me your name. Firefighter Derek Rhodes. Derek Rhode .

Speaker 6 20:56

We , they call me d Rhodes though. Don't d

Speaker 2 20:58

Rhodes both Chief sheriff from Henne and ems and Nick Simpson, the medical director knew you by name. How's

Speaker 6 21:04

That? That's what kind of family we got here. Please fire and hen Uppin County are one big family. Dude,

Speaker 2 21:09

Love

Speaker 6 21:10

It. It's just , that's what we do, man. It's just what ? I don't know . That's what we do. That's nice . You know, if everybody could do that, it'd be a better world, wouldn't

Speaker 2 21:16

It? Yeah. Wish. Wish the whole world knew that. Yeah , man . Wish the whole world knew that.

Speaker 6 21:19

Any problems? Hey Marty, man, can I , could I talk two in the morning? Three in the morning? Hey , uh, what's up bro ? What's up? Hey man, can I just talk to you about that last call we had ? Absolutely. He's there for us, man . You know, we love having these guys on the street, man. They didn't have doctors on the street where they could come in and swoop in and put an airway in. We got 'em . Now

Speaker 5 21:38

I will say , uh, what he mentioned though about talking after calls is something that's , um, 20 years ago didn't happen.

Speaker 6 21:44

It's new . It's new. Yeah . So he held it in .

Speaker 5 21:47

A lot of people have different terms for it. I've called psychological first aid. We just get back and talk to people, talk about what happened. Uh , you always talk kind of what could we have done anything different? Could we have done anything better? And then we talk about our feelings.

Speaker 2 21:59

If you hold that inside, that ain't good for anybody. You

Speaker 6 22:02

Will , you gotta let it out back on the rig.

Speaker 2 22:06

Thanks .

Speaker 5 22:06

Appreciate

Speaker 6 22:07

It. Love you too .

Speaker 2 22:09

Thanks John .

Speaker 6 22:10

I love you. Good to see you . Take

Speaker 2 22:13

Care. Nice cabin . We're back in the command vehicle. I'm looking at your screen and it is full of calls in red and the screen is scrolling up with all of the calls and here comes another one and another one's coming in. Even as I'm commenting about that, what do you do if you run out of

Speaker 5 22:35

Ambulance? So, you know, we are a part of a large healthcare system and also that we're surrounded by North Memorial Allina , Edina Fire , and , uh, Ridgeview Ambulance. So we do mutual aid with those other ambulance providers and we cover for them. They cover for us , uh, works out really well before the night's over. We'll be taking a call for them too.

Speaker 2 22:54

And I think the key point of all that is, although your ambulances are all currently engaged, you have a cooperative relationship with other companies. The patient and the public are being served Correct through that cooperative.

Speaker 5 23:06

And then we also prioritize calls . So the call that , uh, that was waiting for, like was waiting about a minute and a half before we signed a rig , um, was uh , what's called a Code two call. So that's a non lights and siren type emergency. So even though they're responding there, they're just driving routinely without lights and siren to go to that call. As , uh, Dr . Simpson mentioned, there's a lot of danger in driving code three , uh, for not only our ourselves but the public. And so we try to reduce the amount of code three driving as much as possible, but we also have to balance that with the , the need to get to the patients as soon as possible.

Speaker 2 23:37

So is there a typical day for a paramedic, or is that an impossible

Speaker 6 23:41

Question?

Speaker 5 23:41

You know, that's one of the , uh, attractions to the job. Is there not a typical day? Uh , the shifts vary. Uh , we have a few eight hour shifts. Most are 10, 12 and 14 hour shifts. So , um, uh, the good news is they , they , they crunch down their hours and , and usually three days a week, they, most of them work and uh

Speaker 2 23:58

Right . You can't work too many 14 hour shifts.

Speaker 5 24:00

Yeah . Yeah . So they usually work on two fourteens followed by , uh, 12. And , um, for example, the last call around those gentlemen , uh, were on a 12, I believe, 6:30 PM to 6:30 AM So, like I said, they , they see a lot of calls in that timeframe. They get really good at what they do really quickly. Yeah . They're , they're really well trained and experienced paramedics.

Speaker 3 24:21

One of the things that I have found about EMS and emergency medicine that I find incredibly valuable and fulfilling, but also at times taxing, is that you do get to see, you know, an unfiltered reality. And that includes, you know, great things like babies born and amazing saves. It also includes horrible things , uh, people getting injured or killed. And , uh, I think those, those hard times, as Marty said, do stick with you. And having a way to process those and work through those is really important.

Speaker 5 24:56

That's a real challenge for us. What we did last year start a , um, a mental health program with our team, which turned out to be really beneficial. And we had everyone , uh, visit with their psychologist and they did what we call a checkup from the neck up . And it proved to be very successful. And we found that we had a bigger mental health problem than we even imagined we had. And a lot of people started receiving , um, therapy and treatment and it's worked out really well. And

Speaker 2 25:23

Have the medics responded well to that? Because one thing I have noticed tonight is your team of paramedics is a , uh, calm bunch. I think most of the public would be , uh, your heart would be racing. Your stress levels are high. Your bunch of paramedics, your, your men and women that we're seeing out there in these ambulances seem very calm and professional. But does that come at a cost to their own mental health? I

Speaker 5 25:48

Wonder? I think it does, but also it helps them. Uh , you know, we always talk about, we bring , uh, calmness to chaos and that's , that's our role. You

Speaker 2 25:58

Know ,

Speaker 5 25:58

That's obvious. Yeah. And so it is a very chaotic situation. It's probably somebody's worst day of their life. And we come there and we try to provide a calming assurance and, and you think better and you don't make mistakes when you're nice and calm. You know, you'll see that in the ED as well. The docs in the ED are very calm. Yep . And , uh, people , uh, you know , we're just, we , we understand the situation. We're we're focused on the patient, but we're also in , in ems, we have to focus on our surroundings too. Because once again, we , we we're in unfamiliar surroundings. We don't know , um, from , from full . And we have to keep an eye out on everything that's going on.

Speaker 2 26:31

Yeah. And the , and the fact that your paramedic is not jumping up and down and panicking and running around doesn't mean that they're not taking it seriously. It means that they're , they are taking it seriously.

Speaker 5 26:40

Right . And also when you're walking up, if you run up, you , you can't take it all in. But if you walk up, you can scan the , the , the area, see what's going on, pick up on small clues of what might be around, or people that might be around, or conditions that might be around. And you can tell a lot from the body language of people, the body language of the patient, that there's a lot of , uh, visual clues that you can pick up while you walk up to the scene.

Speaker 3 27:03

One of the things that allows our medics to develop that calm in the cast is they , they see a lot of calls. You know, our medics run, what is it, 1100 calls a year, Marty?

Speaker 5 27:13

Uh , that's about average. Yeah . So some close to 2000.

Speaker 2 27:16

Each

Speaker 3 27:17

One. Each one. So they, they are exposed to a lot and they, they've, they've seen a lot. And I think that allows them to be comfortable in situations cuz they've been in most of them before.

Speaker 2 27:28

Marty, if I'm ever down, I want the chief of EMS to come up and , and I've watched you with so many members of the public this evening, and I'm like, that, you just make me feel , um, reassured just by your presence, I mean, you , you get in there with your paramedics and, and help them assess the situation. You talk to the patients, you, they get to know that

Speaker 5 27:48

You , well actually , we're all a big team. You know , we're in this business to help people and we help customers, we help each other. And so it really makes for a , a great work environment,

Speaker 2 27:59

Really . Great . So now we're standing outside Hennepin County Medical Center of the big hospital in downtown Minneapolis, operated by Hennepin Healthcare . And as one of our ambulances drives by, that wraps up our evening , uh, with Hennepin ems, where I have been just absolutely blown away by the professionalism, the good nature, and actually just the , the teamwork of the public safety community here in Minneapolis. I've been with Dr . Nick Simpson. He is the medical director of Hennepin ems and an emergency medicine physician here at Hennepin Healthcare . And Marty Shear, he is the chief of Hennepin ems. Marty, any last thoughts?

Speaker 5 28:34

Hey, I wanna thank you guys for joining us tonight. Pleasure to have you along. I'm so proud of our team. We have one of the best teams in the entire country as far as ems. And no matter what the condition or the situation, we're there to help you

Speaker 2 28:45

Out. Dr . Simpson, thanks for letting us be here tonight . Any thoughts from you?

Speaker 3 28:48

Yeah, thank you guys for joining us. Uh , the more people understand about what it is we do, we bring to their homes, their businesses, the , the public. I think it , uh, makes things just a little less scary in those, those really scary times. And , uh, it's just an honor to be a part of the system and an honor to serve our communities and, and get to do what we do.

Speaker 2 29:08

My thanks to both of you, gentlemen. My thanks to your team. We're glad you're out there keeping us all safe. Thanks for a great evening. So that's all we have for this episode. Thank you all for joining us. This has been a great episode with the Hennepin Emergency Medical Services Department. I hope you'll join us for our next episode. And in the meantime, be healthy and be well.

Speaker 1 29:31

Thanks for listening to the Healthy Matters podcast with Dr . David Hiin . To keep up to date with the latest in healthcare and your health, subscribe to this podcast wherever you get your podcasts. For more information on Healthy Matters or to browse the archive, visit our website@healthymatters.org. And if you have a question or comment for the doctor, email us at healthy matters hcm e d.org or give us a call at six one two eight seven three talk. To catch all the latest from Dr . Hilden and the Healthy Matters Podcast, follow us on Twitter at Dr. David Hilden . Finally, if you enjoyed this podcast and would like to support us, please leave us a review and share the Healthy Matters Podcast with your friends and family. The Healthy Matters Podcast is made possible by Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota. An engineered by John Lucas at Highball Executive Producers are Jonathan Camino and Christine Hill . Please remember, we can only give general medical advice during this program, and every case is unique. We urge you to consult with your personal physician if you have more serious or pressing health concerns. Until next time, be healthy and be well.