Well, now that I have your attention, Lt Morse from Rescuing Providence is sending along a chain letter of sorts and I can’t turn him down.

He was tagged by another blogger who was tagged by another and so on and so on until I was chosen.  He has been asked to share what reading material awaits when he visits his “office.”  And he did, then tagged me along with 4 other bloggers.  So I will do the same and wow you with the expansive reading material awaiting me.

Brace yourselves.

• Parenting Magazine

• A JC Penney Catalog

• Firehouse Magazine

• the wife’s word puzzle magazine

So there you have it, another of life’s nagging questions answered.

Now for the tagging.  I think I’ll choose a few folks who may actually have something neat to share.

MEDIC 22

EPIJUNKY

FRUGAL FAMILY

MOTORCOP

MSPARAMEDIC

Traveling the interwebs machine on a study break I found a blog post that was titled The SFFD is Stalking me.

So of course I had to.

Kent Firefighter Gary Lane runs the blog Coffee Talk Around the Tailboard and it contains a great mix of personal thoughts (He’s anti-triple load), embarrassing co-worker photos, and a fair bit of tips and tricks at the company level.  Take this video for example:

Not a bad company drill, right?

Now go over to the blog and dig back to the first day he started building that prop and you too can have these kinds of drills.

So welcome to the 2nd Alarm Board Mr Lane, I’m a follower.

Ying, meet Yang.

New Mutual Aid Company: Burned Out Medic.

He dropped a comment on a recent post and I just spent an hour reading through some great posts of his.  Have a look and imagine the voice of Charlie Brown reading the stories of EMS we all tell.

*Good Grief*

…No, I’m always Happy to see you.

As it is these days with blogs, websites, social media accounts, emails and every other conceivable way to link to these here pages of EMS and Fire fun, there always seems to be something new and interesting out there.  My analytics recently showed a site called tactical pants.

Enter tacticalpants.com.  Now before you get all Motorcop on me and discuss the merits on how many pockets your duty pants should have (Mark’s jumpsuit has billions, I prefer a standard 5) take a look in the bottom right hand corner of their site and hidden rather carefully is a title labeled Tactical Pants Blog.

I know, right?  I thought the same thing.  Kind of like seeing that my toothpaste has a website, how interesting could it really be?

Well, I had a click and started to read not only posts about law enforcement, but links to some of my favorite blogs as well.  They even interviewed AD a little while ago, but not too much about his pants, more about being a Medic, blogger, author and role model.

So I’m trying to decide where to add Tactical Pants in my blogroll between PD Evals and Continuing Education.  For now they will reside in the PD Evals section just because of the hilarious Cop LOLCats feature they did.  Go on, take a look.  It’s right near the AD piece.  Coincidence?  HMMMMM?

Waiting for the bells to ring,

HM

The Po-po with the Mo-mo, the Po-po a Go-go is back on the streets after welcoming Baby MC and starts off in a car due to pouring rain. Poor guy didn’t even get to fire up the Honda and bust some fools on his first day back? We at HMHQ think that is just a travesty.

Welcome back Motor Cop, we missed you and your matter of fact style. We always enjoy reading from our Law Enforcement friends, but you are after all our brother from another mother here in blogger land.

Stay Safe MC and see you in the report room for cocktails.

HM

(Oh yeah I did)

Mark has chimed in about an update to the Project, the Trans-Atlantic Paramedic exchange I’m always reminding you of. Pop over and read his post, answer his question, then come back for my thoughts on whether blogs are bad.

It seems that the powers that be on both sides of the pond are still nervous about the reality of patient confidentiality laws, and rightly so. It is understandable to be worried about litigation if one of your people is blogging, facebooking/Myspacing or tweeting the address of a patient, a patient’s name, history, likeness or scene photo, but what about those of us trying to make an impact on the Profession of EMS?

These same supervisors who are nervous about Mark’s blog being perceived as NHS driven and my supervisors to even allow me to tell you my name, surely sit down with other professionals and share tales of “the big one” or “the call that went wrong.” Are those violations of privacy rights?

What about ACLS scenarios? Each time we enter the classroom we are encouraged to share stories of patient outcomes and interventions. Are those violations of privacy rights?

Many of you may be shaking your heads and saying, “That’s different, it’s not in the public realm,” I say sure it is. I go home, tell the wife about a rough call or scenario in class, she tells a friend, etc etc.

We share information all the time, and mostly even more details than have even been shared in this arena. Privacy is so private that people will scream for help on a busy sidewalk, then refuse to give their name because they don’t want a bill. Will rail on and on about their medical history, in front of dozens of strangers, then I have to get a form signed saying I promise not to share their information with anyone outside of our billing system. That’s makes sense, right?

I took this opportunity to re-read the Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act (HIPPA) and find out once and for all if what I’ve been doing is allowed. Here’s a shocker…yes.

From the text of HIPPA:

What Information is Protected

Protected Health Information. The Privacy Rule protects all “individually identifiable health information” held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associate, in any form or media, whether electronic, paper, or oral. The Privacy Rule calls this information “protected health information (PHI).”¹²

“Individually identifiable health information” is information, including demographic data, that relates to:

• the individual’s past, present or future physical or mental health or condition,
• the provision of health care to the individual, or
• the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual,

and that identifies the individual or for which there is a reasonable basis to believe it can be used to identify the individual.¹³ Individually identifiable health information includes many common identifiers (e.g., name, address, birth date, Social Security Number).

The Privacy Rule excludes from protected health information employment records that a covered entity maintains in its capacity as an employer and education and certain other records subject to, or defined in, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 20 U.S.C. §1232g.

De-Identified Health Information. There are no restrictions on the use or disclosure of de-identified health information.¹⁴ De-identified health information neither identifies nor provides a reasonable basis to identify an individual. There are two ways to de-identify information; either: (1) a formal determination by a qualified statistician; or (2) the removal of specified identifiers of the individual and of the individual’s relatives, household members, and employers is required, and is adequate only if the covered entity has no actual knowledge that the remaining information could be used to identify the individual.¹⁵

Take note of the “and” following the bullet points under Protected Health Information. If I post about someone who, even if I change all the information, can still be identified by someone not there at the time, it becomes questionable.

I understand the reason for privacy rights, believe me, but I also understand how sharing information of a non-sensitive manner can help move our understanding of this Profession forward by leaps and bounds.

I don’t know what privacy laws are relevant in the UK, but I’m sure Mark is well aware of his limitations, as evidenced in his post.

Blogging can do harm Mark, when done recklessly and without respect to our patients, clients, employers and co-workers.
But when done following the intent AND letter of the law, it can only help.

I’ll explain more when you pick me up from the airport in Newcastle during our blog born EMS exchange to advance patient care. But keep that private, OK?

You need to stop what you are doing right now and click over to Life Under the Lights.

This is not a drill.

Attention all companies and units in the field:

Just received via twitter:

@motorcop1 Baby MC has arrived! The Wife rocked it! Med free and all natural! She is my hero! I am now surrounded by estrogen with two beauty girls.

My self proclaimed brother from another mother reports via twitter that both Mrs MC and Baby MC are healthy and well.

Watch for updates at Motorcop’s home base.

That is all.

We’re flush on available resources at the moment, but are bumping a blog up from the follow list onto the board.

9-Echo-1 has been hiding in my blogger reading list for a few months now, but this recent post about the current Health Care debate made me smile, laugh, and had an amazing calming effect as I read it. I think the author and I differ politically, but reading ideas that make perfect sense is something I’ll always agree with.

9-Echo-1 Describes his writings this way:

“My rambling musings, opinions, and observations on all manner of things…life, work, EMS, politics…anything. Names will be changed (in accordance with HIPPA) to protect the innocent, guilty, and terminally stu…well, we’ll leave it at innocent and guilty for now. Politicians are exempt from HIPPA. These are my opinions and mine only. They do not represent the official policy or opinions of any of my employers, past or present.”

Welcome to the board 9 Echo 1, standby for a 26 Alpha 1.

I’ve been tinkering with the Mutual Aid and Continuing Education boards and wanted to pass along some new favorites.

Mutual Aid

Pedro the Paramedic recently caught my eye with a leaning towards the management aspect of what we do.

Writer Sean Fitzmorris has resurrected his Burning Tiger content at, where else, Burning Tiger Reborn! This link will take you back to the beginning of a great EMS story I’m still working through. Grab a drink and get yourself 30 minutes alone to get started and be able to appreciate it.

CEUs

With all the talk in this economy about cutting back and spending wisely, a friend tried to get me to read some pretty crazy stuff. In a different category was this site Frugal Living at its Finest someone on Facebook recommended. I’m not familiar with the author they are basing their life changing economic adventure on, but I admire their honesty, even though it is an anonymous blog. If we could all be this honest about money, maybe this place would be running a little smoother.

Have a site I should be following? Drop a comment and I’ll take a look in between playing Pirates on Facebook and watching the little ones.