CAAS Newsletter – March 2017

CAAS Panel of Commissioners

CAAS wishes to thank Dr. Owen T. Traynor for his six years of dedication and leadership on the CAAS Panel of Commissioners.  His incredible commitment to excellence and the CAAS Standards is greatly appreciated.

We also wish to welcome Dr. Gerald Beltran of Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts as the new physician member on the CAAS Panel of Commissioners.  In addition to Dr. Beltran, the Panel includes Chair Jon Howell, CEO, Huntsville Emergency Medical Services and Matthew Streger, Principal, Keavney & Streger.

CAAS Board of Directors

We wish to thank Mark Postma, COO of Sunstar Paramedics and VP of Paramedics Plus, who served on the CAAS Board of Directors for over twenty years and most recently as the CAAS Chair, for his great integrity, vision, professionalism and boundless energy.

We also are excited to welcome Michael Hall, President/CEO of Nature Coast EMS, to the CAAS Board of Directors.

We wish to thank our CAAS Board of Directors for their tremendous dedication and support of CAAS.

• Kathy Rinnert, MD, FACEP, Chair
• Joe Penner, Vice Chair
• Troy Hagen, Treasurer
• Skip Kirkwood, Secretary
• Dale Adkerson
• Dale Berry
• James Cusick, MD, FACEP
• Mike Hall
• Randy Howell
• Mark Meijer
• Susan McHenry

Recent CAAS Accreditations

In February, the CAAS Panel of Commissioners granted CAAS accreditation to one new agency:

• Lynch EMS (Anaheim, CA)

Additionally, the following eight agencies were granted re-accreditation:

• American Medical Response (Buffalo, NY)
• Mobile Medical Response (Saginaw, MI)
• Northwell Health Center for Emergency Medical Services (Syosset, NY)
• Patriot Ambulance (Flint, MI)
• ProMedica Transportation Network (Toledo, OH)
• Rockford Ambulance (Rockford, MI)
• South Area Fire District (Wausau, WI)
• Tri-Hospital EMS (Port Huron, MI)

Congratulations to all our initial and re-accrediting agencies for a job well done!

Prepare for Accreditation Using the CAAS Standards

New On-Demand Webinar Series Now Available (6 hours of detailed training!)

CAAS is pleased to offer a new three-part webinar series to assist you in planning for your accreditation or re-accreditation using the CAAS Gold Standards. It provides a detailed overview of the application process and clearly defines what can be expected throughout. You’ll learn about the benefits of accreditation and identify ways in which you can increase operational and clinical performance, reduce risk and liability, and maximize your market position as a result. This online series provides an opportunity to review the standards, learn best practices, and receive expert answers to all your most important accreditation questions.

Recorded in March, this program will show you how to:

• Plan and budget for accreditation
• Recognize and maximize the value of accreditation for your organization
• Motivate staff for accreditation
• Understand and apply CAAS standards to your organization
• Prepare your application
• Develop application documentation
• Learn how to use the new paperless submission process

Purchasers of this On-Demand Seminar Series also receive the CAAS Standards and CAAS Application ($155 bonus value!).

Added bonus: When you purchase this On-Demand package, you are allowed to share this education with anyone else within your agency that could benefit from it. 
Click here to purchase.

CAAS to Offer Free Webinars

Fresh off the conclusion of our March Seminar series, CAAS is planning additional free webinars designed to focus on key educational areas that we will help agencies prepare to submit their accreditation application.  Upcoming topics include “How to Develop Policies and Procedures” and “Top 10 Standard Challenges and How to Avoid Them”.  Stay tuned for details on how to register and/or view this new webinars!

CAAS-GVS to Hold Remount Forum in June

The Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services, Ground Vehicle Standard Division (CAAS-GVS) will be holding an open forum for organizations involved in the remounting of ambulances. The intent of this meeting is to identify and establish a dialogue with FSAMs and third party Remounters of ambulances in an effort to collect information that may be used in an identified project to create standards for the ambulance remount industry.

Any organization with interest in this topic is invited to attend, including ambulance builders, remounters, regulators, customers and component/material vendors.

This is an information gathering session only. Input from this meeting will be for the use of the GVS Committee once a remount standard project has been defined and scheduled. No decisions will be made or standards created at this meeting.

The meeting will be held on June 7, 2017, from 12:00-5:00 pm, at the MEDIC Mecklenburg EMS Agency headquarters in Charlotte, NC.

Pre-registration for the meeting will be required.

Thanks for Sharing Your Agency-in-Action Photos. Now Send More!

Last month, we sent out a request to CAAS Accredited Agencies to share photographs of their agency in action and we got some great submissions.   Special shout out to recent contributing agencies, including:

• Advanced Medical Transport of Central Illinois
• Emergent Health Partners
• New Castle County EMS
• Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority (REMSA)
• Swartz Ambulance
• Symons Ambulance

If you are an accredited agency, it’s not too late to share photos of your agency in action. We only request two things: every photo should have the CAAS logo visible somewhere in the photo and the agency needs to complete a photo release form.

If you would like to share one of your photos or see all the photos that have been shared so far, please visit the site’s Resource Center.

CAAS Physician Site Reviewers Needed

CAAS is currently seeking active EMS Medical Directors interested in serving as CAAS site reviewers.  If you know of a physician that might be interested in becoming a site reviewer, please contact the CAAS office at 847-657-6828 for additional information and application details.

Stay Up to Date with CAAS Via Social Networking

Have you visited any of our social media networking sites yet?  CAAS is active on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  Check in daily for the latest updates and announcements about CAAS and our accredited agencies.  Get advanced notice of upcoming seminars, events and webinar sessions.  Share some of your photos and accomplishments with others, and join in on discussions related to CAAS accreditation.  Visit our sites and share with others to help us grow!

Upcoming meetings for CAAS

CAAS will be attending and/or exhibiting at these upcoming meetings – please plan to stop by our exhibit booth.