KENTUCKY

Jessamine County EMS (JCEMS) serves a population of 54,000 in Jessamine County, Kentucky. JCEMS employs 45 personnel to staff five ambulances during the day and four ambulances at night, with an additional ambulance during peak hours. Our crews provide basic life support and advanced life support coverage, and operate out of three stations throughout Jessamine County.

              A team from JCEMS attended the Seattle RA in 2019. Prior to attending, Jessamine County EMS had no formal HP-CPR training, no detailed post-event review, and no T-CPR. However, after attending, they implemented several lifesaving programs that have seen a great deal of success:

  1. T-CPR: The local dispatch director implemented “no-no-go” dispatch protocols. Today, JCEMS review 100% of the calls that are identified as a cardiac arrest, and they are all inputted into CARES. Telecommunicators take annual T-CPR refresher training.

  2. Data: JCEMS started submitting data into CARES – one of the first agencies in the state to do so. Today, they have a statewide CARES coordinator. We started submitting data into CARES mid-2020, and started HP-CPR that summer. We began seeing our first survivors that fall!

  3. HP-CPR: We also started a HP-CPR program. We even made our own video!

  4. Post-Event Review: we believe that detailed post event review is one of the most important aspects of our continued upward survival trajectory. Our team and other first responders take great pride in having a good “report card” after a cardiac arrest. We also plan on recording audio soon.

  5. Culture: We worked hard to build a culture where the crews know that patients can and do survive from cardiac arrest. We award everyone on the scene of a cardiac arrest with a challenge coin. We have also worked hard to build a culture of extreme ownership and radical transparency - just a few of our mantras that keep us striving to grow and evolve, and we expect this from everyone on the department.

  6. Leadership: Our Medical Director has been deeply involved from the very beginning. He supports all of our initiatives to improve survival rates, and meets with community leaders to champion the cause.

Looking to the future, JCEMS hopes to work on rapid dispatch and Law Enforcement CPR/AED, and plans to continue to host more RAs throughout the state of Kentucky.

Ann Doll