Emerging monitoring technology
According to the National Fire Protection Association’s annual report, sudden cardiac death remains the number one cause of on-duty firefighter fatalities in the U.S.—and has accounted for the largest share of firefighter deaths in almost every year of the report.
However, some hope could be on the horizon as the U.S. Fire Administration shared that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working to develop a model for real-time heart health monitoring in firefighters. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), NIST created a Heart Health Monitoring (H2M) model which has been able to determine cardiac rhythm abnormalities with 97% accuracy during test studies—and they hope to use that technology in a portable heart monitor to alert firefighters to seek medical attention before it is too late.
The ever-growing case for healthy living
While real-time heart health monitoring may not be available for everyday use for quite some time,
there is something you can do right now to help combat heart health risks—and that’s living a healthy
lifestyle, including implementing a fitness regimen.
For instance, a recent study published by Sage Journals, “The Effect of Mandatory Fitness Requirements on Cardiovascular Events: A Stateby-State Analysis Using a National Database,” sheds some light on why cardiovascular events may occur more frequently among firefighters in some regions than others—and, spoiler alert, there’s a case to be made for implementing fitness standards within all types of fire departments.
Through investigating the rate of cardiovascular events among firefighters and examining if the results to see if there were any correlations between the types of firefighters and their location, their findings showed that volunteer firefighters are significantly more likely to die of a cardiovascular event compared to career and wildland firefighters, both of which tend to have stricter fitness standards.
Race discrimination in EMS care and beyond
“ESO,” a data and software company that serves emergency service organizations, released their “Index” which includes data from more than than 3,000 EMS agencies nationwide. As reported on by JEMS, there several findings in the Index that are worth bringing attention to, including some notable points that shed a light on inequities in healthcare based on a patient’s race.
For example, their data showed that despite EMS documentation of severe pain, only 63% of Black and African American patients who were later confirmed to have long bone fractures in the hospital were administered prehospital pain medication, compared to 73% of patients overall.
Further, this isn’t only an EMS provider-specific issue as the research also found that only 17% of Black patients who suffered a cardiac arrest received bystander CPR, compared to 22% of patients overall. (And, of course, we’d hope that percentage of bystander CPR would be much higher overall, regardless of race.) The
full report, which also included data related to the opioid epidemic, health and safety, patient offloading times and more, can be downloaded at eso.com.
A reminder on EMTALA
It’s important to remember that there are federal laws in place to help protect individuals from unfair treatment and discrimination and that patients could take legal action against your organization if they suspect or believe that has taken place.
One of these laws is the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which is specific to care
in the emergency room. This Act protects every individual’s rights to receive an appropriate medical screen exam to check for an emergency medical condition and, if one is discovered, the right to treatment until the emergency medical condition is stabilized and appropriate transfer to another hospital, if needed. Anyone can file an EMTALA complaint at cms.gov.
Behavioral health concerns
Your team is called to support others on some of their darkest days—and that selfless service can come at a price. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an estimated 30% of first responders develop behavioral health conditions, including depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), compared to 20% of the general population.
Further, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that occupational stress of being a first responders can be associated with increased risk of serious mental health issues, including hopelessness, anxiety, depression, PTSD and suicidal behaviors, such as suicidal ideation and actualized attempts.
Whether it’s the stigma associated with mental health or lacking a culture that prioritizes and celebrates individuals for seeking health, it’s important to keep behavioral health top-of-mind and continue to look for ways to instill a culture of wellness, safety and health within your department. And please remember that the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is always only one call away.
Looking for ongoing support for your members? VFIS offers our Accident & Sickness (A&S) clients the option to add a low-cost Member Family Assistance Program (MFAP) to your policy. This program gives you 24/7, 365 access to trained professionals that are available to assist you with crisis situations, behavioral health concerns and dayto-day life and wellbeing stressors. MFAP members can receive confidential and professional help through the dedicated VFIS MFAP help line 866.349.5579.
Creating healthy & high-functioning departments
The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) has teamed up with the American Psychological Association (APA) and Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FBHA) to create the “Psychologically Healthy Fire Departments: Implementation Toolkit” to help emergency services leaders understand the link between member wellbeing and performance and take steps to better support their members.
Included in the Toolkit are six areas of focus that can help promote member wellbeing and department functioning, including member involvement, health and safety, member growth and development, work-life-volunteer balance, member recognition and effective communication.
The Toolkit notes that these are the types of factors that can lead to increased job satisfaction, higher
morale, better physical and mental health, enhanced motivation and an improved ability to manage stress and be resilient—and that emergency service organizations can reap the benefits by seeing better performance
and productivity, improved recruitment and retention and fewer accidents and injuries.
The toolkit, including best practices, a case study and additional resources, can be downloaded in-full at nvfc.org.
The importance of community
While it’s widely understood that your social life is connected to the level of support and belonging you may have or feel, there hasn’t been much research into modifying one’s social network as active intervention for suicide prevention. That’s why the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (ASFP) recently funded a study at the Georgia Institute of Technology to evaluate just that.
The simulation showed that even changing one feature of an individual’s social network, like joining
a new social group, had a good chance of reducing one’s overall suicide risk. And, just as importantly, it didn’t seem to increase the risk of suicide for those who were already doing well.
While more research on social network alteration is needed, the findings show that focusing on your
social network could be impactful. This could be applied to fire and EMS departments in many ways, including
creating more committees and opportunities for those who may not have strong connections within your department to engage and be social with others.
Legal action against organizations related to Employment Practices Liability (EPLI) claims are on the rise, including allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination. Not only could these claims have a negative impact on your reputation—they could cost you money and time as well. That’s
why it’s crucial to understand your members’ legal rights as employees or volunteers of your organization to help ensure their rights are not violated, as well as provide continued education and reminders to help instill a respectful work environment.
EPLI Resources available to VFIS Clients
VFIS clients have access to a variety of educational courses to help your team better understand employment related risks and appropriate behaviors, including annual refresher courses on VFIS University (available at VFISu.com), including Preventing Child Sexual Abuse and Misconduct, Sexual Harassment Prevention, Respectful Workplace and Workplace Violence Prevention.
Further, when you purchase EPLI insurance coverage through us, you also have access to an EPLI Helpline that you can call to speak with attorneys regarding general information about a broad range of human resources and employment law subjects, including topics that tend to be at the center of employment-related lawsuits.