Blog

October 7, 2024Read more...

NEMSQA Wins Nicholas Rosecrans Award for Reducing Ambulance Crashes with Lights and Siren Initiative

LAS VEGAS, NV (September 18, 2024) – The National EMS Quality Alliance (NEMSQA) was honored as this year’s prestigious Nicholas Rosecrans Award winner for their exceptional work on the Lights and Siren Collaborative. NEMSQA’s initiative has been pivotal in reducing the risks associated with the use of lights and siren in emergency medical services, improving safety for EMS providers and the public while maintaining high standards of patient care.

September 18, 2024Read more...

Election Safety: Risk Assessment and Preparation Webinar

The upcoming presidential election will be a wild adventure for the U.S. (as well as future elections everywhere). In addition to deciding our vote, those of us in emergency services need to prepare for all kinds of election-related disruption. During this webinar, Bill Ott, the Cybersecurity Strategist for FirstWatch, will address: Cybersecurity Threats, Polling Place Safety, Election-Related Violence, Post-Election Unrest, Foreign Interference, and Voter Intimidation and Harassment. Our Data Analyst, Valerie Popovich, will also show you how geofencing and triggers...

August 21, 2024Read more...

Public Health Emergency of International Concern – Mpox Clade I

The likelihood of a large outbreak of Mpox Clade I or I b is low outside of Africa, but isolated cases or outbreaks are possible. This post provides an early alert to First Responder Agencies, especially those that do EMS, to make sure their agency is ready if Mpox should occur in your area, to reduce the risk of responders being exposed to & developing Mpox.  There will be some suggestions for initial preparation for Mpox to get you started....

July 16, 2024Read more...

Pinnacle Webinar Series – Tackling Overdoses with Real-Time Data

Overdoses continue to plague communities throughout the US and Canada. One North American EMS system recently had 245 overdoses in a single day. Identifying, tracking, and mapping overdoses is key to effective intervention. During this engaging session, we explored cutting-edge technology that EMS systems use to tackle this problem in near real-time.

July 1, 2024Read more...
Mary Meeks

Mary E. Meeks Selected as the 2024 – 25 Recipient of the Jack Stout EMS Fellowship for Leadership Development

PLATTE CITY, MO — Mary E. Meeks, EMS District Chief for Chatham Emergency Services (CES), headquartered in Savannah, Ga., has been named the 2024 - 25 recipient of the Jack Stout EMS Fellowship. Endowed by FirstWatch, the Fellowship was created in collaboration with the Fitch EMS Foundation. The Fellowship is named in honor of the late Jack Stout, widely regarded as the father of high-performance EMS systems. It aims to provide a platform for chosen individuals...

June 5, 2024Read more...

Celebrating Pride Month at FirstWatch: Honoring Our LGBTQ+ Team Members

As we step into June, FirstWatch is proud to celebrate Pride Month, a time dedicated to honoring the vibrant and diverse LGBTQ+ community. This month serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of inclusion, acceptance, and the ongoing struggle for equality. At FirstWatch, we believe that our strength lies in our diversity. Our LGBTQ+ team members are integral to our success, bringing unique perspectives, creativity, and passion to our workplace. We are committed to fostering an environment where everyone...

November 3, 2023Read more...

Orange County Fire Authority: Leading with Data

Transparency is good. But data without context can mislead. How OCFA leverages data to tell a more complete story. “A critical component of our work is accurately identifying and describing the problems we face as a fire department and as a community,” says Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy. “Once we’ve identified a problem, then we can address it.” The bigger and more complex those challenges, the more important it is to convey them accurately. For Fennessy and OCFA, this begins...

August 9, 2023Read more...

CPSE – FirstWatch Webinar: Fire Operations and Accreditation Monitoring and Reporting

The FirstWatch Fire Operations Analytics/Accreditation Module (FOAM) provides you with accurate and verifiable data that produces consistent and creditable management information based upon the accreditation requirements of CFAI and from any combination of data sources that are required to report on the specific dimensions of importance to you.

August 2, 2023Read more...
A photo of Lake Stevens (Wash.) PD with children at the lake at an event called Pops with Cops, which provides popsicles to local children.

Keeping Ahead of the Crowd

How Lake Stevens (Wash.) PD continues to innovate, despite staffing challenges Chief Jeffrey Beazizo of the Lake Stevens, Wash., Police Department needs to keep informed in order to keep his community and officers safe. “If something big happens,” he says, “I want to know immediately. With FirstWatch, I get alerted through CAD triggers on my phone as soon as that call comes through. “It’s obviously not every call I need to be alerted to,” he says. “But major crimes and Priority...

June 22, 2023Read more...

Paramedic Chiefs of Canada – Burnout in EMS: An Evidence-Based Organizational Approach

The negative consequences of burnout in EMS stretch well-beyond the individual and can affect entire organizations as well as the patients served. Nevertheless, most traditional interventions aimed to reduce burnout focus on the individual and fail to address the underlying systematic causes. In this session, Dr. Remle Crowe reviews the latest research and presents organizational-level strategies to meaningfully reduce and prevent burnout at your EMS agency.