Announcements

New EMS1 Column Post by Mike Taigman – How EMS should benchmark for improvement

Read the latest post in the new Paramedic Chief column via EMS1, "Better EMS Performance" led by our own Improvement Guide, Mike Taigman. In this new column, Mike and our FirstWatch team along with our customers and colleagues will share actionable strategies, concepts and ideas to make real improvements. This column draws from Learning Organizations, Systems Thinking, Six Sigma, Lean Thinking, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and others you will not need to have a black belt to put these ideas...

New EMS1 Column Post by Mike Taigman – Improve EMS performance like a champion

Read the latest post in the new Paramedic Chief column via EMS1, "Better EMS Performance" led by our own Improvement Guide, Mike Taigman. In this new column, Mike and our FirstWatch team along with our customers and colleagues will share actionable strategies, concepts and ideas to make real improvements. This column draws from Learning Organizations, Systems Thinking, Six Sigma, Lean Thinking, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and others you will not need to have a black belt to put these ideas...

New EMS1 Column Post by Mike Taigman – EMS Chiefs: Listen for theories

Read the latest post in the new Paramedic Chief column via EMS1, "Better EMS Performance" led by our own Improvement Guide, Mike Taigman. In this new column, Mike and our FirstWatch team along with our customers and colleagues will share actionable strategies, concepts and ideas to make real improvements. This column draws from Learning Organizations, Systems Thinking, Six Sigma, Lean Thinking, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and others you will not need to have a black belt to put these ideas...

Webinar Recording: Introduction to AIMHI and The New Role of High Performance / High Value EMS – Part 1

We're so excited to partner with The Academy of International Mobile Healthcare Integration (AIMHI) to bring you their first webinar introducing their rebranding (formerly the Coalition of Advanced Emergency Medical Systems (CAEMS)), that highlights high performance EMS systems’ focus to highlight the rapidly transforming role of EMS agencies across the United States and Canada. This first of its kind webinar will introduce the participants to AIMHI and its mission, and explain the concepts of High Performance EMS...

New EMS1 Column by Mike Taigman: Better EMS Performance

We're so excited to announce the new Paramedic Chief column via EMS1, "Better EMS Performance" led by our own Improvement Guide, Mike Taigman. In this new column, Mike and our FirstWatch team along with our customers and colleagues will share actionable strategies, concepts and ideas to make real improvements. We will draw from Learning Organizations, Systems Thinking, Six Sigma, Lean Thinking, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and others you will not need to have a black belt to put these ideas...

Webinar Recording: Make the Most of your TriTech CAD Data

TriTech and FirstWatch have worked closely together for more than a decade since their first integration in 2001. With over 60 shared customers across the U.S. & Canada, this webinar is aimed at maximizing the benefits of using both solutions together. In this webinar you will discover how to get the most from your TriTech CAD data and how it can be integrated with other data sources to create powerful, actionable information... in near real-time on any device including your phone...

Mike Taigman to Join FirstWatch Team: Will Focus on FirstPass Quality Improvement Tool

Download the PDF Encinitas, Calif. – February 1, 2016 – Starting in April, Mike Taigman will become the newest member of the FirstWatch team, President Todd Stout announced today. “Mike is an industry leader and internationally recognized as an educator, facilitator, consultant and author,” said Stout. “The clinical experience, knowledge and passion for quality improvement he will bring to our team is nothing short of extraordinary.” FirstWatch, based in Encinitas, Calif., began monitoring 911 data in Kansas City, Mo., in...

Jack Stout for NPR: Experts Consider Economics To Speed Up Ambulance Response Times

Jack Stout, the legendary father of "High Performance EMS" and father of our FirstWatch founder and President Todd Stout, was interviewed by NPR this week as their Planet Money team explores how ambulances use principles of economics to get to patients fast. What a great interview - we hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Full the full transcript, visit the NPR website here.

FirstWatch Helps North Shore Fire/Rescue, WI with Real-time Fire Intelligence Dashboards, Visualizations and Reports

Download the PDF Encinitas, Calif. – December 16, 2015 – In the wake of the fire department dashboard system VineLight shutting off their subscriber site to customers with few hours’ notice, North Shore Fire/Rescue, WI needed a system to help keep their finger on the pulse of their data – and FirstWatch was there to help. North Shore Fire Chief Robert Whitaker said, “We use our data for situational awareness, performance measures, NFPA measures, monitoring compliance and so much...

Medic2Medic Podcast Features Todd Stout

FirstWatch President Todd Stout was recently interviewed by long-time industry friend Steven Cohen, the current EMS Chief at Cary Area EMS. In addition to working as an EMS Chief, Steven runs his own podcast, Medic2Medic. It was honor for Todd to be featured on the podcast as an individual who made an impact on Steven’s career, and to share with you folks some of those who made an impact on Todd's career. Listen to the interview below! Listen...

Webinar Recording: Northwest Fire District Uses FirstWatch to Improve Performance

Our team had the pleasure of having a visit with Jim Long, Communications Coordinator at Northwest Fire District, AZ while he was in San Diego this week for the ESRI user conference. In this webinar Jim shares how their team uses our FirstWatch tools to improve their agency's performance and operations. He covers everything from how they purchased FirstWatch via Grant money, how they used our tools to get re-accredited, and the ways in which they are using FirstWatch to...

Webinar Recording: PSO's and EMS – EMERG

Patient Safety Organizations are becoming an integral part of the safety of our our patients and caregivers. For the benefit of your agency and it's people, we highly recommend you learn more about the benefits of joining a Patient Safety Organization (PSO). Being part of a PSO can reduce legal exposure to issues found during your QI process and lead to better, safer, patient care. We are currently aware of two great options: the Center for Patient Safety and Emergency...

Webinar Recording: PSO's and EMS – Center for Patient Safety

Patient Safety Organizations are becoming an integral part of the safety of our our patients and caregivers. For the benefit of your agency and it's people, we highly recommend you learn more about the benefits of joining a Patient Safety Organization (PSO). Being part of a PSO can reduce legal exposure to issues found during your QI process and lead to better, safer, patient care. We are currently aware of two great options: the Center for Patient Safety and Emergency...

Webinar Recording: Richmond Ambulance Authority Uses FirstPass to Enhance QA/QI Process

The Richmond Ambulance Authority is recognized nationally for its innovative approach to quality, continually measuring, analyzing and improving outcomes and processes across the entire organization. Richmond uses FirstPass® technology to enhance and automate its Total Quality Management system. Rob Lawrence, Richmond's COO, and his team demonstrate how FirstPass automatically puts each patient care record through a series of tests, comparing documentation and patient care to agency protocols-allowing them to provide near real-time feedback to crews. Register Now to View Recording.

Webinar Thursday: Northwest Fire District, AZ

Join us Thursday, July 23rd at 1 pm PT learn how Northwest Fire District in Arizona has used our FirstWatch tools to improve their agency's performance and operations. Northwest Fire Communications Coordinator, Jim Long will share their FirstWatch story including why they chose FirstWatch, how they used our tools to get re-accredited, the ways in which they are using FirstWatch to monitor compliance to NFPA1221 and 1710 and much more.  

Webinars this week: Patient Safety Organizations and EMS

Patient Safety Organizations are becoming an integral part of the safety of our our patients and caregivers. For the benefit of your agency and it's people, we highly recommend you learn more about the benefits of joining a Patient Safety Organization(PSO). Being part of a PSO can reduce legal exposure to issues found during your QI process and lead to better, safer, patient care. We are currently aware of two great options: the Center for Patient Safety...

Webinar Features EMS Compass Call for Measures

We wanted to make you aware of an important national initiative, EMS Compass, one of the largest ever conducted by national Office of EMS, bringing together more than 50 experts in EMS and the science of performance management. In fact, two of them include former FirstWatch Medical Director Alex Garza, MD, Medical Director, and Debbie Gilligan, Product Strategist. Dr. Garza is a featured speaker in a webinar on the initiative, to be held Wed. May 13 at 2:00 pm EST. You...

FirstWatch Steps Up to Help Fire Departments with Real-time Fire Intelligence

In the last week we have received many urgent requests for FirstWatch information & potential assistance from Fire Departments across the US. These departments have reached out because they were subscribers to a SaaS fire department dashboard system called VineLight, which shut down their subscriber site with a few hours’ notice. While VineLight was not a real-time system like FirstWatch, these departments counted on the information it provided, and the sudden loss of that information could have negative impacts for the departments...

Webinar – Make the Most of Your TriTech CAD Data with FirstWatch

TriTech and FirstWatch have been business partners for more than a decade since their first interface integration in 2001. With over 50 shared customers across the U.S. & Canada, we brought together common customers to share with you how to get the most from your TriTech CAD data and how it can be integrated with FirstWatch to create powerful, actionable information... in near real-time at your fingertips. Hear best practices from three FirstWatch/TriTech users on how to best optimize the information...

Debbie Gilligan to Chair Technology Developers Group for NASEMSO National EMS Performance Measures Project

We're so very proud to have our Product Strategist, Debbie Gilligan, as the chair of the Technology Developers Group for the National Association of State EMS Officials new national EMS performance measures project. Debbie will be helping to ensure that the benchmarks established can actually be measured using the electronic patient records systems currently available. Read the Article