MJ146A; Sepecial Addition - LOCATE for EMS and Fire Size-Up and Assessment

Welcome to Mitigation Journal the All-Hazards Podcast!Contact us:Email - [email protected] the voicemail line - 585-672-7844Subscribe to Mitigation Journal at iTunes...its Free!Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/mjpodcastGo to www.mitigationjournal.blogspot.com for all the detailed notes on these and other topics!Check out my friends at MedEx Billing at www.medexbilling.com In this edition of Mitigation Journal:It seems simple enough; before you can provide treatment and transportation you have to find the person in need of your service. Actually finding the patient is only part of the job. Providers of emergency medical service (EMS) at all levels must prepare themselves prior to reaching the scene or patient for a variety of potential actions and outcomes. Waiting to arrive on-scene to develop a care plan or mental review of the potential scenarios places both provider and patient at a disadvantage. The fire services use the process of pre-incident planning and size-up to prepare firefighters for potential needs or dangers of any given situation. Pre-incident planning can be used to anticipate additional resources and special needs of a situation. Emergency medical services can and should do the same.EMS and fire service text are filled with acronyms that have become part of daily conversation. Acronyms are memory aids that range from the simple ABCDE’s that remind us of the basics of patient assessment to SLUDGE as a memory jog for organo-phosphate exposure symptoms. In this installment we will introduce the acronym LOCATE as a means of assessing not only the patient, but the scene and patient needs as a whole.