16: Inside the World of EMSSTAT

Kyle Hurley, Director of EMSSTAT at Norman Regional Health System sits down with the Vedalas to talk all things EMSSTAT, which is Norman Regional Health System's emergency medical service. EMSSTAT is a hospital-based EMS in both the public safety and healthcare sectors, making it a unique service for the communities it serves. Kyle talks to the doctors about his career journey, working in the emergency department through the COVID pandemic, the Fentanyl epidemic, the different positions a part of EMSSTAT and more. Learn about Norman Regional's emergency medical service, EMSSTAT, in this exciting episode of Vital Visions!

Guest bio:
Kyle Hurley, MBA-HC, NRP, is the current director of EMSSTAT at Norman Regional Health System. Kyle has 24 years of experience in healthcare, holding various roles at Norman Regional such as an ER technician, a paramedic and paramedic supervisor, a business planning specialist, a system manager of the emergency departments, and is now in his latest role as director of EMSSTAT. While simultaneously working at Norman Regional, Kyle has also previously been an associate professor at Southern Nazarene University, teaching Healthcare Ethics to graduate students.

Kyle is a proud member of the Norman and Oklahoma communities, where his passion and involvement truly shine through his organizational affiliation. He is on the board of directors for Sooner Healthcare Executives, is involved with and was previously the president of the Norman Rotary Club, and is a board member of the Norman YMCA. Kyle's strong ties and relationships help him collaborate with other healthcare and non-healthcare professionals in the community, which allows him to have a hand in the betterment of patient care. 

Kyle was born and raised in Norman Oklahoma, and is proud to be working at the health system in his home town. Kyle is married and they have a dog named Jack. Together,  he and his wife enjoy traveling to different places and going on wine tours while on vacation. Kyle also enjoys watching movies and is a self-proclaimed movie addict. 

Links:
EMSSTAT Services
EMSSTAT Careers
Blog: "Program Trains, Incentivizes Next Generation of Paramedics with Norman Regional EMSSTAT"
Blog: "Norman Regional Rescues People from Tornado Damage"
Blog: "Norman Regional EMSSTAT recognized for KROR, Quail Creek Bank"

This podcast is for educational purposes only. The information in this show is not to be used as medical advice. If you are needing medical care, please consult with your physician.

Norman Regional is hiring! See all our open opportunities here: https://careers.normanregional.com/careers-home/

Transcript

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Welcome, friends.

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Dr. Veer Vedala here.

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And I'm Dr.

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Krishna Vedala, and.

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We are. The Vedala Bros.

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Welcome to season
two of our podcast, Vital Visions,

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where we delve into all things
vital, empowering our community.

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One health topic at a time. Absolutely.

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And to our returning listeners,
it's fantastic to have you back

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and to our new listeners.

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Buckle up, because in this podcast
we explore emerging medical research,

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the latest in technology

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and crucial health care topics
that resonate with our community here

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at Norman Regional.

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Plus, we also sprinkle in some health
and wellness tips for good measure.

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That's the spirit.

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And each episode,
we're also joined by incredible guests,

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from medical professionals
to local community leaders

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and even some of our friendly neighbors.

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Together, we tackle various issues
affecting our community.

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So whether you're a health enthusiast
or just looking to stay informed

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about healthy living trends,
consider this podcast.

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Be your ultimate go to resource.

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So join us as we navigate the journey
to healthier lives

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and explore
the latest trends in wellbeing.

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Welcome to Vital Visions
Where Health meets Community.

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Welcome back, everyone.

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I am Dr. Veer Vedala here,
joined by my co-host,

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Dr. Krishna Vedala.

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And we are the Vedala brothers.

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Thank you for joining us for yet

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another episode of Vital Visions
where we talk about everything

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Vital.

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A critical part of any health care system

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is how the system responds
to emergency situations.

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EMTs and paramedics are important

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health care workers that respond
to these emergencies provide immediate

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medical care, stabilization, and transport
those patients in need.

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They play a vital role in saving lives
and ensuring patients

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receive the necessary care
during urgent situations.

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We have with us, Mr.

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Hurley today, who wants to talk to us
about a very important aspect

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of Norman Regional that is specific to us.

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EMSSTAT, Yes.

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Perfect.

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Do you want to introduce him?

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Yes, yes, yes, of course.

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Well, today we're thrilled to have Mr.

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Kyle Hurley, who is the director of
EMSSTAT here at Norman Regional,

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and we're so glad that he's here

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because there's a lot of questions
that we have to ask him about.

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But first off, Mr.

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Hurley, just please tell us a little bit
about yourself. Okay, 

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Well, thank you both for having me here.

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I'm a, I'm a Norman native,

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born and raised, and I've lived here
the majority of my life.

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And so, my background, I really, I was,

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I was a swimmer, so I was into aquatics,
and so I was a lifeguard.

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And so actually, where
I kind of got my health care interest,

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I mean, I do have a family background
of lots of physicians and stuff.

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but as you all know, medical school is
like, that sounds like a lot of schooling.

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So anyway,
I went down the community college route

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and went to paramedic school after
I kind of exhausted what I could learn.

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And do, you know, just being a lifeguard
and an instructor trainer, you know,

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for the Red Cross, 
so fell in love with EMS,

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got my first job at the old Porter
Emergency department as a tech.

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And so I just kind of worked my way up, so
got my paramedic, did that for a while.

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Then I was a supervisor

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and then at some point I went, you know,
I think I want to

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do a little bit more than just, 
you know, patient care in the field.

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And so that's when I went back
and I finished up my bachelor's

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and then got my MBA
in health care management.

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And so then I moved on
into business development.

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So the nice thing is that I've been

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with Norman Regional for 24 years,
so all the different roles that I've been

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in, I've gotten to stay here at this one
health system in my hometown,

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which is great.

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So I did business development
for a few years.

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Did, you know, the complete
other side of health care.

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And then at some point
they wanted to do some restructuring

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in the emergency department
leadership wise.

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So they said, Hey,
will you be the system manager for

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all three of our emergency departments?

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So, I don't know that

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I would have said yes to that
if I had known a pandemic was coming.

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But but, you know, hey, we all just did
our best, you know, during that time.

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And so I managed the emergency departments
for three years.

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And then, at the end of that, we had
some people who retired and moved on.

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And so then I was asked to 
come back to EMSSTAT 

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now as the director,
you know, over the service.

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So I was like, Absolutely.
So that's kind of where I started.

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So it's, it's
almost kind of like going home.

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And so that's, that's a little bit
about my professional career.

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you know, I'm married.
We don't have any kids.

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we do have one terrible dog.

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I'll mention his name. Jack.

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You know, the one we do not speak of.

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So he's little cute.

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Little, terrier mix, so.

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But, you know, all these storms
that have been going on here lately,

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I mean, it's just like anybody's
got a dog.

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I mean, you know,
you know, when the storms coming,

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so but I try to stay active
in the community.

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I was also during COVID,
I was the president of the Norman Rotary Club.

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So kind of kept that going.

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And, and Rotary fantastic organization,
largest service organization in the world,

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do a lot of good here in the community,
doing a lot of giving back.

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And then I also sit on 
the YMCA, board of directors

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of here in town,
and then I'm also on the board for,

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sooner health care executives,
which is the Oklahoma chapter

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of the American College of Health Care
Executives.

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and so, and then just, free time.

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I enjoy going to movies. I'm
a huge movie addict.

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and then my wife and I
would love going on wine tours and stuff.

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We just got back from Colorado
and did a lot of wine touring there, so.

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Yeah. So you're a man of many hats?

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oh yeah, absolutely.

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just that before we get started,
I heard you said you're a movie buff.

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Have you been to Flix Brewhouse yet?

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I have not.

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oh my gosh.

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It's amazing. You should try. It.

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Okay, I need to.
I need to go try. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

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They even brew their own root beer,
and it's delicious.

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Oh really? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I'm there.

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Just Curious

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Before we move forward, 
what's your favorite movie?

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You know, I just got asked that
the other day, and it's just.

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It's.

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There's
so many different genres and stuff.

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I mean, I just threw out
Shawshank Redemption,

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you know,
just to throw something out there.

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I mean, it's number one on IMDB right
now, so.

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But it's it's. It's absolutely fantastic.

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You can't go wrong with that.

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No, you can't.

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I mean, I mean,
the Star Wars is always kind of a good

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go to and everything,
but I feel like everybody,

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you know says those but you know
Fifth Element is actually a really good one.

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That's a good, people don't know about that one.

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Because it's it's
I mean, it's got all the different,

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you know, like elements in there.

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It's got good sci
fi. It's an original story.

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You know, it's got a love story.

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I mean, you laugh, you cry.

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It's exciting.

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I mean, it's it's all the above.

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So what do you
think about The Dark Knight?

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Oh Dark Knight is fantastic.

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Yeah. I mean, just absolutely fantastic.

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So my thing is, first of all, Christopher
Nolan is one of the best directors ever.

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I can't wait to go see Oppenheimer,
which is out now.

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So Hans Zimmer,
who does like all his movie soundtracks.

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So I mean, you watch if you watch
the behind the scenes for like how he did

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Dark Knight, Dark Knight Rises,
how he did Interstellar and stuff.

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It's just I mean, Hans
Zimmer is just a genius. Yeah.

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So but yeah,
all those movies are fantastic.

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See, now I'm getting I think I think maybe
Interstellar or actually, you know what?

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Maybe Inception is my favorite.
Inception is a great movie.

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That's right.

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And I mean,
I feel like I get Incepted every day.

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Yeah. You know, so. But,

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It's the someone's, implanting an idea.

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That's right. Without us knowing.
That's right.

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That's right.

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All right. Well, thank you, 
of course, for the entertaining.

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us, we could go on and on for movies.
yeah.

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That be our next podcast.

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So. Yeah. Yes, yes.

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The Norman Regional presents
the movies in our community. Yes.

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That are vital to your viewing pleasure.

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Oh that's great. Okay. Yeah.

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That's a new, new
meaning to Vital Visions.

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well, Mr.

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Hurley, I think the good place to start
and again, your,

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your service here
at, at at Norman Regional is really inspiring.

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And thank you for being here.

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And thank you for having us as a guest.

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And, really goes to say
how much of a family environment

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Normna Regional really has. We hear  stories
all the time that people have been here

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for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years
and yeah, it's, it's inspiring.

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but I think a good place to start with
for us would be like, what?

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How is EMSSTAT,

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How does EMSSTAT

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Like, set it itself apart?

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Like, how is it different than other EMS

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systems and hospitals?

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Sure. Yeah, No, great question.
So there's different.

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So one thing to talk about
are the different models of EMS services.

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So you have privately run.

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So like EMSA in Oklahoma City.

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So they have a public trust agreement

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with the city of Oklahoma City,
but they're they are privately run.

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McClain-Grady EMS has a different system,
but I mean, it's still

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privately run,
you know, out of Newcastle and Blanchard.

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You have those that are municipal based.

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So like Noble EMS
is through the fire department.

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So the city runs their EMS.

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I mean we see NYFD
I mean the, you know, the EMS

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for the city of New York City.

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I mean it's, it's municipally, you know,
based, we're a little bit different.

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We are a hospital based EMS.

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And so I actually think
because we're in the public safety

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arena, like when you think of,
like, police and fire

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EMS as that third leg
a lot of people forget about.

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And then, but we're also health care.

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So we're a hybrid,
you know, kind of linking between

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the two
and being a hospital based service.

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I really think that we get the best
of all the worlds because, we have

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all the resources of the health system
and so, and I mean, I went, you know,

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I went to paramedic school
so I could go out

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and, you know, help people,
you know, prehospitally.

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and so, I mean, working with other health
care professionals

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just makes sense to me.

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And so, and since we have a, I mean,
we have a great working relationship

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with the emergency department and that
and then that started well before me.

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so, you know, we just continue
the tradition, but it's so there's that.

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But one of the other things
that kind of distinguishes EMSSTAT is that

219
00:09:23,062 --> 00:09:26,941
we've also had very strong
medical oversight and involvement.

220
00:09:27,358 --> 00:09:28,317
When I started,

221
00:09:28,317 --> 00:09:28,901
Dr. McCloy,

222
00:09:28,901 --> 00:09:32,780
So all paramedics and EMTs have to
work under a medical director's license.

223
00:09:32,863 --> 00:09:34,699
and so we had Dr.

224
00:09:34,699 --> 00:09:35,992
McCloy, followed by Dr.

225
00:09:35,992 --> 00:09:37,702
Robby Frantz, who was fantastic.

226
00:09:37,702 --> 00:09:40,079
And for the past while we've had Dr.

227
00:09:40,079 --> 00:09:41,664
Patrick Cody, who's one of our E.R.

228
00:09:41,664 --> 00:09:43,457
physicians. And. Love Dr. Cody

229
00:09:43,457 --> 00:09:45,876
yeah, Dr. Cody is absolutely fantastic.

230
00:09:45,876 --> 00:09:48,588
I mean, he's involved.
He gets the residents involved.

231
00:09:48,588 --> 00:09:50,840
You know, with us.
I mean, he's very proactive.

232
00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:54,802
I mean, we are,
so one thing I mean, here's an answer to

233
00:09:54,802 --> 00:09:57,972
the question and just one part of it,
which is we are one of the few

234
00:09:57,972 --> 00:10:01,767
EMS services
that did not carry any narcotics.

235
00:10:02,184 --> 00:10:04,895
And so because one of the things,
you know, as you,

236
00:10:04,895 --> 00:10:08,608
I'm sure both know, is that narcotics
don't do well for a lot of patient types.

237
00:10:08,858 --> 00:10:12,695
And so similar sort of way
for how in the emergency department

238
00:10:12,903 --> 00:10:17,158
the residents are doing the Fascia Iliaca blocks,
you know, for the hip fractures and stuff.

239
00:10:17,158 --> 00:10:20,411
So we don't have to give these elderly hip
fracture patients narcotics

240
00:10:20,411 --> 00:10:21,537
and they have poor outcomes.

241
00:10:21,537 --> 00:10:24,457
The outcomes have actually,
I think, swung, you know,

242
00:10:24,457 --> 00:10:27,418
in the positive direction by like 90%
because of what they're doing.

243
00:10:27,418 --> 00:10:32,131
And our our complications from giving
narcotics have decreased quite a bit.

244
00:10:32,131 --> 00:10:36,469
So, I mean, we carry Etomidate,
we carry Versed, we carry Ketamine

245
00:10:36,719 --> 00:10:41,015
and and so and that's done really well
and Ofirmev, you know,

246
00:10:41,182 --> 00:10:43,559
so we're not we're not giving Fentanyl,
you know,

247
00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:46,562
we're not giving Morphine anymore
and stuff that we've had.

248
00:10:46,687 --> 00:10:49,815
And, you know, with medications
like Ketamine, I mean, you have to,

249
00:10:49,857 --> 00:10:51,901
you have to it's

250
00:10:51,901 --> 00:10:54,695
you have to find the balance, you know,
for like how much, you know, appropriately

251
00:10:54,695 --> 00:10:59,283
to give to a patient, so, but another
one of the things that distinguishes us

252
00:10:59,283 --> 00:11:03,412
also is that we strive for our 911
calls to be a dual paramedic service.

253
00:11:03,663 --> 00:11:04,288
There is a paramedic,

254
00:11:04,288 --> 00:11:06,791
just like there's a nursing shortage,
there's a paramedic shortage.

255
00:11:06,791 --> 00:11:09,877
And so we,
we've figured out a long time ago

256
00:11:09,877 --> 00:11:12,296
that the best care that patients can get
prehospitally

257
00:11:12,296 --> 00:11:15,299
is when we have two paramedics out there,
because now you have somebody else,

258
00:11:15,591 --> 00:11:18,219
you know, at your license level
that you can run things past.

259
00:11:18,219 --> 00:11:21,097
So is it cheaper to have EMTs out there?

260
00:11:21,097 --> 00:11:21,972
Yes, it is so.

261
00:11:21,972 --> 00:11:23,307
But they're a lower license level.

262
00:11:23,307 --> 00:11:25,351
They have less training, less experience.

263
00:11:25,351 --> 00:11:28,479
And so
and the majority time, things are fine.

264
00:11:28,479 --> 00:11:31,691
But having an extra paramedic out
there just means that

265
00:11:31,691 --> 00:11:34,694
the people that we run on are getting the
best care they possibly can.

266
00:11:35,945 --> 00:11:36,904
Wow. Wow.

267
00:11:36,904 --> 00:11:39,073
Thank you for that. So,
you know, we learned a lot from that.

268
00:11:39,073 --> 00:11:42,284
I mean, especially
you guys probably see this with this whole

269
00:11:42,743 --> 00:11:45,663
this Fentanyl problem
that's been going on.

270
00:11:45,663 --> 00:11:46,664
And it's everywhere.

271
00:11:46,664 --> 00:11:47,790
Yeah, it's everywhere.

272
00:11:47,790 --> 00:11:49,542
And it's we we see it a lot.

273
00:11:49,542 --> 00:11:51,669
We see it at the jail.

274
00:11:51,669 --> 00:11:52,837
So people will come in.

275
00:11:52,837 --> 00:11:55,005
You don't think that
they've overdosed on stuff.

276
00:11:55,005 --> 00:11:57,258
And so
and then they will have stuff on them

277
00:11:57,258 --> 00:12:01,679
that will expose the detention officers,
then they become patients and stuff.

278
00:12:01,679 --> 00:12:04,348
So, I mean it's
it's, it's a real, real problem.

279
00:12:04,348 --> 00:12:05,933
I know everybody thinks

280
00:12:05,933 --> 00:12:08,185
I shouldn't say everybody,
but I know I've seen things out there

281
00:12:08,185 --> 00:12:10,354
saying, well, as long as there's
just like Narcan available.

282
00:12:10,354 --> 00:12:11,188
Well,

283
00:12:11,188 --> 00:12:15,317
I mean, Fentanyl, is such, I mean, as you all know,
I mean it's it's potency is so high.

284
00:12:15,609 --> 00:12:17,695
Narcan might reverse them for
just like a little bit,

285
00:12:17,695 --> 00:12:20,239
but they're just going to go back,
you know, into their comatose state.

286
00:12:20,239 --> 00:12:22,408
And so and we're back
where we started.

287
00:12:22,408 --> 00:12:25,536
So, I mean, I mean,
first of all, don't do any of that stuff.

288
00:12:25,536 --> 00:12:28,205
So anybody who's listening,
don't do Fentanyl, okay?

289
00:12:28,205 --> 00:12:31,167
If your physician prescribes something
to you, then that's a different thing.

290
00:12:31,167 --> 00:12:34,128
But don't get the stuff off the street
plus you know, you don't know.

291
00:12:34,128 --> 00:12:36,213
You know, it's purely or whatever
it's mixed with and stuff.

292
00:12:36,213 --> 00:12:38,257
So, yeah, I mean, that's
that's crazy. Yeah.

293
00:12:38,257 --> 00:12:41,469
I mean, I think even so, we're primary
care physicians

294
00:12:41,469 --> 00:12:45,181
and even though like family med trained
had some ER background like fentanyl

295
00:12:45,765 --> 00:12:48,100
is ever prescribed for me, it's
been like with patches and yeah,

296
00:12:48,100 --> 00:12:49,143
there's newer medications

297
00:12:49,143 --> 00:12:53,189
with buprenorphine and stuff that are,
can be used for pain management as well.

298
00:12:53,189 --> 00:12:55,691
And well typically I,
I think the intention was always

299
00:12:55,691 --> 00:12:58,944
for end of life
care for patients with significant oncological pain.

300
00:12:58,986 --> 00:12:59,236
Right.

301
00:12:59,236 --> 00:13:00,154
And so and yes

302
00:13:00,154 --> 00:13:04,575
the the even the fentanyl patch itself
is at least, they'll last 72 hours long.

303
00:13:04,575 --> 00:13:05,242
Yeah, exactly.

304
00:13:05,242 --> 00:13:08,120
And so we have completely the opposite
when it comes to abuse.

305
00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:09,288
I mean, people are taking something

306
00:13:09,288 --> 00:13:12,291
that really should last three days,
probably in about a few minutes.

307
00:13:12,500 --> 00:13:14,168
Yeah. And that's just so scary.

308
00:13:14,168 --> 00:13:18,839
And that's once again leads to why
you just said earlier, giving them Narcan

309
00:13:18,839 --> 00:13:22,551
alone is not going to solve the situation
because it's just so potent, so correct.

310
00:13:22,885 --> 00:13:23,344
Right.

311
00:13:23,344 --> 00:13:26,806
And I fear that some of the substances
that's not just opioid,

312
00:13:26,806 --> 00:13:30,434
but sometimes could be contaminated
with fentanyl is what I'm hearing. Yes.

313
00:13:30,768 --> 00:13:31,894
Which is terrifying.

314
00:13:31,894 --> 00:13:35,815
We started seeing things
with synthetic marijuana, you know, like,

315
00:13:36,357 --> 00:13:39,193
you know, like over a decade ago
and stuff was called K2.

316
00:13:39,193 --> 00:13:40,986
And so and there's
a lot of different things out there.

317
00:13:40,986 --> 00:13:42,404
So but it's just like,

318
00:13:42,404 --> 00:13:44,907
I don't think people understand
what they're putting into their bodies.

319
00:13:44,907 --> 00:13:47,993
I mean, they think, hey, I'm going to get
a high and it's going to be fine.

320
00:13:47,993 --> 00:13:50,663
And sometimes that's exactly
what's going to happen and other times.

321
00:13:50,663 --> 00:13:52,498
I mean, it can be very deleterious.

322
00:13:52,498 --> 00:13:54,708
You know, you know, for them. So.
Yeah, yeah.

323
00:13:54,708 --> 00:13:57,586
So, Moving from,

324
00:13:57,586 --> 00:14:01,340
you know, from the opioid epidemic
that we that our country has faced

325
00:14:02,007 --> 00:14:04,885
now talking about something
that really impacted our lives

326
00:14:04,885 --> 00:14:06,804
for the last 3 to 4 years,
which is the pandemic.

327
00:14:06,804 --> 00:14:07,054
You know,

328
00:14:07,054 --> 00:14:09,515
I was an internal medicine resident
during the pandemic,

329
00:14:09,515 --> 00:14:11,475
and that's something
that I will be telling

330
00:14:11,475 --> 00:14:14,895
all my, you know, future generations
just how difficult and how crazy of a time

331
00:14:14,895 --> 00:14:17,898
it was to think of in the
in the middle of the 21st century.

332
00:14:18,774 --> 00:14:21,151
What were some of the challenges
that you faced,

333
00:14:21,151 --> 00:14:24,530
during the pandemic,
or at least during its initial stage?

334
00:14:24,530 --> 00:14:27,825
And also kind of how it's different
from now?

335
00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:29,034
Sure.

336
00:14:29,034 --> 00:14:32,663
So when when the pandemic started, so
I was still in the emergency department.

337
00:14:32,788 --> 00:14:36,041
and so, you know, we start finding out
about things just like everybody else.

338
00:14:36,500 --> 00:14:38,752
And I think for us, you know,

339
00:14:38,752 --> 00:14:42,590
the first biggest challenge
was just getting accurate information.

340
00:14:42,590 --> 00:14:46,343
I mean, nobody knew really what
this virus was doing, how itwas transmitted.

341
00:14:46,677 --> 00:14:49,889
I mean, we were
we were we were worried that

342
00:14:50,514 --> 00:14:54,018
when we would do EKGs on patients,
you know, that the paper printing out

343
00:14:54,018 --> 00:14:55,311
was going to become contaminated.

344
00:14:55,311 --> 00:14:59,356
And so we would do EKGs and then go
print the sheet out like outside

345
00:14:59,356 --> 00:15:01,358
so that it wouldn't get
we didn't know we didn't know

346
00:15:01,358 --> 00:15:03,652
how things were being transmitted.

347
00:15:03,652 --> 00:15:07,740
So, you know, the good thing
is that Norman Regional formed

348
00:15:07,740 --> 00:15:10,868
a, a command post
and basically they were the ones

349
00:15:10,868 --> 00:15:13,829
that were assisting with everything,
and that was great.

350
00:15:13,829 --> 00:15:16,373
the challenge though,
in the emergency department was that

351
00:15:16,373 --> 00:15:20,085
we were just getting such misinformation,
you know, from everywhere.

352
00:15:20,377 --> 00:15:24,048
and then, you know, we were having to try
to make decisions quickly

353
00:15:24,048 --> 00:15:27,259
because I didn't have time to wait
till the next meeting

354
00:15:27,259 --> 00:15:28,469
to kind of figure out
what were we going to do.

355
00:15:28,469 --> 00:15:32,139
We had to make changes multiple times
during the middle of the shift

356
00:15:32,139 --> 00:15:33,182
because we didn't.

357
00:15:33,182 --> 00:15:35,225
You know, I did not want,
you know, my employees,

358
00:15:35,225 --> 00:15:38,354
you know, our healers, you know,
to become contaminated and stuff.

359
00:15:38,354 --> 00:15:42,775
So because we had I think it was after
I think it was after the second patient

360
00:15:42,775 --> 00:15:45,861
who we found out had COVID came in
because they came in through the front

361
00:15:45,861 --> 00:15:48,238
door of the Porter campus
and they checked in with the triage nurse.

362
00:15:48,238 --> 00:15:51,283
Well, there was no barriers back then, and
people weren't wearing masks back then.

363
00:15:51,283 --> 00:15:55,037
So we had to quarantine, you know, 
two of these nurses, fortunately,

364
00:15:55,287 --> 00:15:56,664
they didn't get anything.

365
00:15:56,664 --> 00:15:59,083
but after that, I was like,
All right, we're going to have to start

366
00:15:59,083 --> 00:16:01,377
taking some PPE,
you know, precautions and stuff.

367
00:16:01,377 --> 00:16:03,087
And so we actually had to stay

368
00:16:03,087 --> 00:16:05,506
about three steps
ahead of the rest of the health system

369
00:16:05,506 --> 00:16:08,425
because we were seeing all these patients
come directly into us.

370
00:16:08,425 --> 00:16:10,970
So, I mean, similar
to like the primary care clinics,

371
00:16:10,970 --> 00:16:14,306
you know, dentist office, uh 911 calls

372
00:16:14,306 --> 00:16:17,351
I mean, anywhere where you're seeing
a patient for the first time.

373
00:16:17,351 --> 00:16:20,688
So we had to get ahead of,
you know, the floors,

374
00:16:20,688 --> 00:16:22,147
we had to get ahead of surgery,

375
00:16:22,147 --> 00:16:24,316
we had to get ahead of everybody,
you know, on that.

376
00:16:24,316 --> 00:16:26,026
And so we had and we had to make changes.

377
00:16:26,026 --> 00:16:27,444
So part of that was, you know,

378
00:16:27,444 --> 00:16:30,447
communicating out the message, Here's
what we're going to do.

379
00:16:30,531 --> 00:16:30,990
you know what?

380
00:16:30,990 --> 00:16:33,617
That was 2 hours ago plan.
Now we're going to change it and stuff.

381
00:16:33,617 --> 00:16:35,869
So, I mean, it was
it was definitely challenging.

382
00:16:35,869 --> 00:16:38,872
And I will say that the staff,
I mean, stepped up and rose

383
00:16:38,872 --> 00:16:41,959
to the occasion
and we didn't for a long time.

384
00:16:41,959 --> 00:16:43,419
We didn't have any exposures

385
00:16:43,419 --> 00:16:46,588
because we were taking
I mean, just like maximum PPE precautions,

386
00:16:46,839 --> 00:16:49,341
getting all the equipment
that we, you know, we needed to.

387
00:16:50,426 --> 00:16:52,344
but it was also very confusing, just,
you know, how

388
00:16:52,344 --> 00:16:55,431
we communicated all of this to the public
because they didn't know.

389
00:16:55,431 --> 00:16:56,432
So, I mean, they're just coming

390
00:16:56,432 --> 00:16:58,892
into the emergency department
not knowing what's going on.

391
00:16:58,892 --> 00:17:00,894
And so and then also with EMS.

392
00:17:00,894 --> 00:17:03,897
And so I wasn't over EMS at the time,
but we worked with them, you know,

393
00:17:04,064 --> 00:17:06,692
I mean, every single day about things
about like what?

394
00:17:06,692 --> 00:17:09,194
Where to take what patient,
how to communicate things.

395
00:17:09,194 --> 00:17:12,114
The other thing that became very
challenging from a legal perspective is

396
00:17:12,114 --> 00:17:15,159
EMTALA
and so and for those who are listening on

397
00:17:15,159 --> 00:17:18,412
the podcast
EMTALA is the federal legislation

398
00:17:18,412 --> 00:17:22,708
that basically is the Emergency Medical 
Labor and Transport Act.

399
00:17:22,708 --> 00:17:25,669
Basically it's basically what it says is

400
00:17:26,336 --> 00:17:30,257
if you are receiving Medicare
or Medicaid funding,

401
00:17:30,257 --> 00:17:33,385
then if a patient comes
into an emergency department,

402
00:17:33,385 --> 00:17:36,221
then you have to provide
a medical screening exam to them

403
00:17:36,221 --> 00:17:38,932
before you can actually ask
for payment and stuff.

404
00:17:38,932 --> 00:17:39,475
So in other words,

405
00:17:39,475 --> 00:17:44,480
we legally have to see everybody
who shows up 250 yards within our campus.

406
00:17:44,813 --> 00:17:47,649
And so
but there were people who are showing up

407
00:17:47,649 --> 00:17:49,818
just wanting tests,
you know, that say, you know what?

408
00:17:49,818 --> 00:17:51,445
We just we just want a COVID test.

409
00:17:51,445 --> 00:17:52,780
Well, we have we had to see these folks

410
00:17:52,780 --> 00:17:55,074
because they were kind of sort
of seeking emergency care.

411
00:17:55,074 --> 00:17:58,577
So we had to work through some of the
the EMTALA implications, you know, as well.

412
00:17:58,577 --> 00:18:02,539
So and then also just working
with the rest of the health system

413
00:18:02,539 --> 00:18:06,418
because, I mean, everybody was nervous
about all of it and nobody wanted

414
00:18:06,585 --> 00:18:07,336
to get it.

415
00:18:07,336 --> 00:18:10,130
Nobody wanted to take things
back to their family and stuff.

416
00:18:10,130 --> 00:18:11,465
So, I mean, just been having

417
00:18:11,465 --> 00:18:13,467
good clear communication with everyone,

418
00:18:13,467 --> 00:18:15,177
just saying, hey,
we're going to figure this out together.

419
00:18:15,177 --> 00:18:17,846
We're not just going to I'm not just going
to go to a meeting and disappear.

420
00:18:17,846 --> 00:18:19,014
You know, we're going to get this out.

421
00:18:19,014 --> 00:18:22,643
And I feel like we did as good a job
as you know, you could.

422
00:18:23,310 --> 00:18:23,727
Yeah.

423
00:18:23,727 --> 00:18:27,147
I think during that time,
the communities just rose together.

424
00:18:27,147 --> 00:18:29,066
And no matter what system you were in and,

425
00:18:30,275 --> 00:18:31,610
Rose to the occasion.

426
00:18:31,610 --> 00:18:32,027
Yeah.

427
00:18:32,027 --> 00:18:34,279
How was the vaccination process like here?

428
00:18:34,279 --> 00:18:37,699
I, i, i, I tell you what, you know, it's,

429
00:18:38,158 --> 00:18:41,578
I was so excited
when the vaccines were coming out.

430
00:18:41,578 --> 00:18:43,997
I was just thinking,
we're not going to have this for a while.

431
00:18:43,997 --> 00:18:47,543
But I was like,
I mean, it's just, it's, it's like.

432
00:18:47,543 --> 00:18:48,210
It's just.

433
00:18:48,210 --> 00:18:49,253
I mean, how lucky are we?

434
00:18:49,253 --> 00:18:51,922
I mean, not to have a pandemic,
but I mean, just to be where we are

435
00:18:51,922 --> 00:18:55,217
in human history, to where,
you know, a new virus can come out.

436
00:18:55,217 --> 00:18:58,971
And within a year we have got, you know, a
we have a vaccine

437
00:18:59,179 --> 00:19:01,723
and so for me,
it was actually I tell you this,

438
00:19:01,723 --> 00:19:04,726
I mean, when I went to go get it,
I mean, I actually got pretty emotional.

439
00:19:04,977 --> 00:19:09,481
And so and I after I got the you know,
I was taking the picture of myself.

440
00:19:09,481 --> 00:19:12,568
And so I sent it to my wife
and I was like, I'm doing this for you,

441
00:19:12,651 --> 00:19:15,529
you know, and our family
so we can be safe and everything.

442
00:19:15,529 --> 00:19:18,490
But I will say, because I know
there are a lot of anti-vaxxers

443
00:19:18,490 --> 00:19:19,908
out there
and a lot of people questioning things

444
00:19:19,908 --> 00:19:21,326
of course this is a new thing
that we're doing.

445
00:19:21,326 --> 00:19:24,454
So this isn't just like going to get
your flu shot, you know, or something.

446
00:19:24,454 --> 00:19:28,250
So, so there are a lot of people
who are concerned about rightfully so,

447
00:19:28,458 --> 00:19:30,377
but the numbers speak for themselves.

448
00:19:30,377 --> 00:19:36,049
The busiest month that we had in the
emergency department was January of 2021.

449
00:19:36,049 --> 00:19:39,678
So we had so many patient holds
and a hold is where a patient comes in.

450
00:19:39,678 --> 00:19:41,430
They're going to get admitted,
but we don't have a bed for them,

451
00:19:41,430 --> 00:19:43,223
so we have to hold them
in the emergency department

452
00:19:43,223 --> 00:19:45,350
while patients still continue to come in.

453
00:19:45,350 --> 00:19:48,437
So January of 2021 was insane.

454
00:19:49,188 --> 00:19:52,191
and that's not a Norman Regional specific
thing, everywhere.

455
00:19:52,232 --> 00:19:56,778
So but that was when the vaccine
was rolling out February of 2021,

456
00:19:56,778 --> 00:20:01,700
our numbers plummeted down
and so the inpatient hold stopped.

457
00:20:01,909 --> 00:20:03,702
We didn't have as many visits.

458
00:20:03,702 --> 00:20:04,411
I mean, it was just like

459
00:20:04,411 --> 00:20:07,164
we're not seeing people die from COVID
like we were before.

460
00:20:07,164 --> 00:20:09,333
So I was like,
wow, that is that is the vaccine working.

461
00:20:09,333 --> 00:20:10,083
And that is

462
00:20:10,083 --> 00:20:13,045
and I mean, the federal government
pushing things out, saying, all right,

463
00:20:13,045 --> 00:20:15,881
here are the folks that we are targeting
who need to get the vaccine

464
00:20:15,881 --> 00:20:16,632
first and stuff.

465
00:20:16,632 --> 00:20:20,636
So, I mean, frontline workers,
but then also the people who were older,

466
00:20:20,636 --> 00:20:23,764
immunocompromised
people who were in the high risk category.

467
00:20:23,764 --> 00:20:27,684
So I loved the vaccine rollout, but
there were challenges on the employee side

468
00:20:27,684 --> 00:20:30,687
because there were a lot of people
who were offered the vaccine who went.

469
00:20:30,812 --> 00:20:32,689
Mmm, yeah, I don't know. I'm going to wait.

470
00:20:32,689 --> 00:20:34,358
So and that was before it was mandatory.

471
00:20:34,358 --> 00:20:36,985
So but again,
the numbers spoke for themselves.

472
00:20:36,985 --> 00:20:37,903
Yeah.

473
00:20:37,903 --> 00:20:41,198
And then the whole monoclonal
antibody infusion thing came out. Yes.

474
00:20:41,323 --> 00:20:45,118
And that was another process in itself
and trying to get people scheduled.

475
00:20:45,118 --> 00:20:45,452
And I'm sure, did Norman Regional have that option?

476
00:20:46,828 --> 00:20:47,663
Yes, we did.

477
00:20:47,663 --> 00:20:48,580
And there were

478
00:20:48,580 --> 00:20:51,875
there were some nurses from the infusion
clinic who did amazing work.

479
00:20:51,875 --> 00:20:52,167
Yeah.

480
00:20:52,167 --> 00:20:56,088
And so and these are the folks
who were kind of sick but not sick,

481
00:20:56,088 --> 00:20:56,797
sick. Right.

482
00:20:56,797 --> 00:21:00,008
And so and they went over
and I can't remember.

483
00:21:00,008 --> 00:21:02,719
I mean, but it was several hundred
patients, you know, that went over there.

484
00:21:02,719 --> 00:21:05,514
And not a single one of those patients
got admitted afterwards.

485
00:21:05,514 --> 00:21:05,722
Yeah.

486
00:21:05,722 --> 00:21:08,183
So these are people
who were tested positive

487
00:21:08,183 --> 00:21:10,727
and they were starting to show
maybe some symptoms and stuff.

488
00:21:10,727 --> 00:21:12,688
And they went over there
to the infusion clinic

489
00:21:12,688 --> 00:21:14,940
and they did
the monoclonal antibody infusion.

490
00:21:14,940 --> 00:21:17,985
And I was just
I mean, that's another modern day miracle.

491
00:21:17,985 --> 00:21:19,528
Exactly. What is going on?

492
00:21:19,528 --> 00:21:21,989
We are some smart people.

493
00:21:21,989 --> 00:21:23,657
Yeah. If someone is. Yeah.

494
00:21:23,657 --> 00:21:26,785
And obviously we don't want to wish
another pandemic upon ourselves,

495
00:21:26,785 --> 00:21:30,789
but for a while there was a scare that
monkeypox could become the next COVID.

496
00:21:30,831 --> 00:21:31,498
Sure.

497
00:21:31,498 --> 00:21:33,417
Do you think we have learned enough,

498
00:21:33,417 --> 00:21:37,921
about how to integrate services
and how to manage another pandemic,

499
00:21:37,921 --> 00:21:39,047
possibly?

500
00:21:39,047 --> 00:21:39,715
I think.

501
00:21:39,715 --> 00:21:43,218
I think yes, I but I will also say that,

502
00:21:43,635 --> 00:21:47,764
very similar to a tornado
or a flood or something coming through,

503
00:21:47,973 --> 00:21:49,891
the people who go through it,
I think are going to be

504
00:21:49,891 --> 00:21:52,894
the ones who are probably going to be
the best prepared for the next one.

505
00:21:53,270 --> 00:21:56,273
I think the further
we get away from this pandemic.

506
00:21:56,273 --> 00:21:57,607
So let's say the next pandemic

507
00:21:57,607 --> 00:22:00,610
isn't for like another 50 years
or something like that.

508
00:22:00,652 --> 00:22:02,446
I mean, I won't be here, you know?

509
00:22:02,446 --> 00:22:03,322
And so, I mean,

510
00:22:03,322 --> 00:22:07,451
hopefully we've learned enough lessons
and put things into practice and policy

511
00:22:07,617 --> 00:22:10,579
so that the next generation,
you know, can be prepared for that.

512
00:22:10,579 --> 00:22:14,541
I think if a pandemic were to occur now,
I mean, we're all like, yeah, we're ready,

513
00:22:14,541 --> 00:22:19,338
you know, because we've had to I mean,
and just also getting involved, say like,

514
00:22:19,338 --> 00:22:20,505
you know, beyond the health system,

515
00:22:20,505 --> 00:22:22,507
just getting involved, say
like if the city and the county

516
00:22:22,507 --> 00:22:24,926
and the state level
and the federal to a certain extent,

517
00:22:24,926 --> 00:22:28,638
but I mean, there was a mayor's
task force group that, you know, the Mayor,

518
00:22:29,097 --> 00:22:32,601
Breea Clark at the time put together,
and basically it was just all the folks

519
00:22:32,601 --> 00:22:37,105
I mean, all the key folks you had, you
know, the the head physician up at O.U.

520
00:22:37,105 --> 00:22:39,691
He was telling us
everything, was giving us all the updates.

521
00:22:39,691 --> 00:22:40,400
And then, you know,

522
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:41,610
you had the heads from the fire

523
00:22:41,610 --> 00:22:45,030
department, police department,
from us, county health department.

524
00:22:45,030 --> 00:22:46,698
And so it's just like you're having
all the folks,

525
00:22:46,698 --> 00:22:49,701
you know, talking,
you know, in the same room or via Zoom

526
00:22:49,826 --> 00:22:53,038
and the mayor's just like,
what do you need from me? and stuff.

527
00:22:53,038 --> 00:22:54,414
So, I mean, it was very, very helpful.

528
00:22:54,414 --> 00:22:58,502
So I think if I think
if something were to occur here now,

529
00:22:58,502 --> 00:23:01,380
I think I think I think we'd be prepared
and I say we'd be prepared.

530
00:23:01,380 --> 00:23:03,715
I think we'd be as prepared for it
as we could be.

531
00:23:03,715 --> 00:23:03,924
Yeah.

532
00:23:03,924 --> 00:23:07,302
So that's amazing and I think that's kind of
what EMSSTAT's also doing, right?

533
00:23:07,302 --> 00:23:09,429
I mean, I've been reading about EMSSTAT
and talking about

534
00:23:09,429 --> 00:23:13,266
how we're small, but disaster
preparedness and hazard management.

535
00:23:13,308 --> 00:23:15,685
Can you just speak to that
a little bit more? Sure, of course. Yeah.

536
00:23:15,685 --> 00:23:19,356
So we so we have people who are hazardous
materials trained.

537
00:23:19,356 --> 00:23:22,484
And so in other words,
when that train goes by and is carrying

538
00:23:22,484 --> 00:23:26,029
ethyl-methyl-bad, you know, and spills,
you know, we have people who can

539
00:23:26,238 --> 00:23:28,198
the fire department
would be the primary responders of that,

540
00:23:28,198 --> 00:23:31,743
but we're trained in how to handle,
you know, exposures

541
00:23:31,743 --> 00:23:35,038
to hazardous materials,
from a disaster response team,

542
00:23:35,038 --> 00:23:38,667
We have a disaster
medical response team, the DMRT

543
00:23:38,667 --> 00:23:42,921
and there's, Oklahoma has trauma
regions and disaster regions set up.

544
00:23:42,921 --> 00:23:45,257
So we're part of Region six.

545
00:23:45,257 --> 00:23:48,427
and so we respond
to the other areas around us.

546
00:23:48,427 --> 00:23:51,430
So we will mutual aid to other areas
that need assistance.

547
00:23:51,638 --> 00:23:55,016
So for example,
when we had, the tornadoes

548
00:23:55,016 --> 00:23:57,602
going through in February
and then also in April and stuff,

549
00:23:57,602 --> 00:24:01,440
so when we had I mean ours was crazy here,
but then also the ones that were

550
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:04,568
occurring in McClain County,
the ones that went east to Shawnee.

551
00:24:04,776 --> 00:24:08,947
So our DMRT team, I mean, that overwhelms
the EMS system over there.

552
00:24:08,947 --> 00:24:11,366
So we have mutual aid agreements
with all of them,

553
00:24:11,366 --> 00:24:12,909
which means that they need help.

554
00:24:12,909 --> 00:24:15,287
We go help them.
If we need help, they come help us.

555
00:24:15,287 --> 00:24:17,456
And so we were in Shawnee the whole night.

556
00:24:17,456 --> 00:24:18,707
You know, there was a nursing home

557
00:24:18,707 --> 00:24:21,126
that got hit that had,
I think, like 60 residents,

558
00:24:21,126 --> 00:24:25,213
and they all had to be moved away,
you know, So nobody got like bad hurt.

559
00:24:25,213 --> 00:24:27,257
But I mean, you have a building
that's collapsed

560
00:24:27,257 --> 00:24:28,925
and so you got to move
all these residents.

561
00:24:28,925 --> 00:24:30,969
And so one EMS service can't do that.

562
00:24:30,969 --> 00:24:32,304
So we went over there to help out.

563
00:24:32,304 --> 00:24:36,391
So, we, I mean, obviously
because we're in Oklahoma,

564
00:24:36,391 --> 00:24:40,312
I mean, we're very aware of 
natural disasters and so

565
00:24:40,312 --> 00:24:45,025
but it's kind of like we, we do this
and everything, but each one is unique.

566
00:24:45,025 --> 00:24:48,612
And so but we have a
we have a great command team, you know?

567
00:24:48,612 --> 00:24:50,363
At EMSSTAT, 
we have a whole bunch of crew chiefs.

568
00:24:50,363 --> 00:24:53,450
Those are the supervisors and they've all
had I mean, I just look around that

569
00:24:53,450 --> 00:24:57,996
they've they've all had tons of 
tornado and disaster experience.

570
00:24:57,996 --> 00:25:00,081
So it doesn't matter who's on shift.

571
00:25:00,081 --> 00:25:01,541
They're ready and they know what to do.

572
00:25:01,541 --> 00:25:06,171
And, it's just nice to hear
and have a having like a feel of,

573
00:25:06,171 --> 00:25:09,966
of security knowing like their services,
like EMSSTAT are available

574
00:25:09,966 --> 00:25:10,842
and we can't thank

575
00:25:10,842 --> 00:25:13,970
your team and the healers affiliated with
EMSSTAT enough for all of their services.

576
00:25:14,012 --> 00:25:14,721
I appreciate it. Yeah.

577
00:25:15,931 --> 00:25:16,306
Well, sir,

578
00:25:16,306 --> 00:25:19,434
another thing
that we like to talk about in this in

579
00:25:19,434 --> 00:25:23,688
this podcast is we hope that we have some,
aspiring healers themselves,

580
00:25:23,688 --> 00:25:27,484
some students,
looking into going to a career

581
00:25:27,567 --> 00:25:30,237
that's kind of tailored
towards the health care industry, right?

582
00:25:30,237 --> 00:25:35,116
And, I think a really good topic for us
to cover is like hey

583
00:25:35,116 --> 00:25:37,577
What is the difference
between an EMT and a paramedic?

584
00:25:37,577 --> 00:25:38,870
How do you approach that schooling?

585
00:25:38,870 --> 00:25:41,206
How do you go up that ladder? Sure, sure.

586
00:25:41,206 --> 00:25:44,084
So EMT or emergency medical technician

587
00:25:44,084 --> 00:25:47,337
or a basic EMT, all means the same thing.

588
00:25:47,587 --> 00:25:49,798
Just means
that they've had about a semester school

589
00:25:49,798 --> 00:25:50,799
and so and they've learned.

590
00:25:50,799 --> 00:25:52,676
I mean, it's
just what the name implies, basic.

591
00:25:52,676 --> 00:25:56,179
I mean, they've basically learned
how to do some basic patient assessments.

592
00:25:56,429 --> 00:25:58,974
they can, they can do certain things.

593
00:25:58,974 --> 00:26:02,018
I mean, they,
they learn CPR as good as you can.

594
00:26:02,394 --> 00:26:04,437
but they learn splinting techniques.

595
00:26:04,437 --> 00:26:07,440
I mean, in basic EMT,
you learn how to deliver a baby,

596
00:26:07,649 --> 00:26:10,277
not that you need an EMT to deliver
a baby.

597
00:26:10,277 --> 00:26:13,238
Women have been doing that
for thousands of years prior to any of us.

598
00:26:13,238 --> 00:26:17,242
So but you understand that,
you know that process a little bit better.

599
00:26:18,034 --> 00:26:21,621
but it's really designed to kind of like
help the paramedics, you know,

600
00:26:21,746 --> 00:26:24,958
on calls and everything to anticipate,
you know, like what they're doing.

601
00:26:24,958 --> 00:26:27,127
But EMTs can also function on their own.

602
00:26:27,127 --> 00:26:29,212
They're going to be limited
in their scope of practice,

603
00:26:29,212 --> 00:26:32,632
but they also can still do,
you know, quite, quite a number of things.

604
00:26:32,966 --> 00:26:35,719
And so and there's schools around here,
Oklahoma City

605
00:26:35,719 --> 00:26:38,722
Community College, you know, has an EMT
and a paramedic program.

606
00:26:38,847 --> 00:26:41,099
OSU OKC has a great program.

607
00:26:41,099 --> 00:26:44,185
Gordon Cooper in Shawnee has one.

608
00:26:44,477 --> 00:26:48,148
There's a number of places around here
that have them and we see pretty much

609
00:26:48,148 --> 00:26:51,151
the majority of those students,
you know, come through us.

610
00:26:51,151 --> 00:26:53,486
and then paramedics
can take a little longer.

611
00:26:53,486 --> 00:26:56,698
It can take a year or two
depending on which program you go through.

612
00:26:56,906 --> 00:26:59,868
And then the training for
that is going to be a lot more extensive.

613
00:26:59,868 --> 00:27:02,537
So and it's the way I describe
emergency medicine is

614
00:27:02,537 --> 00:27:05,040
I mean, you're a jack of all trades,
a master of none.

615
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:06,249
So, I mean, you're getting training

616
00:27:06,249 --> 00:27:11,379
in cardiology and pediatrics,
in psychology and geriatrics,

617
00:27:11,379 --> 00:27:16,092
in neurology and trauma management, 
all of these things and stuff.

618
00:27:16,092 --> 00:27:20,764
So, and what's helpful
is that those areas that, you know,

619
00:27:20,847 --> 00:27:22,265
maybe we don't know as well about,

620
00:27:22,265 --> 00:27:25,310
I mean, we've got a specialty physician
who can assist us with things.

621
00:27:25,310 --> 00:27:25,894
I mean, our E.R.

622
00:27:25,894 --> 00:27:29,481
physicians are great resources for this
and they will come do training for us

623
00:27:29,606 --> 00:27:30,815
quite a bit.

624
00:27:30,815 --> 00:27:32,108
But back to the student stuff.

625
00:27:32,108 --> 00:27:34,986
So, I mean,
if somebody were to be interested in this,

626
00:27:34,986 --> 00:27:37,697
I mean, they could go to any one of these
schools, you know, and apply,

627
00:27:37,697 --> 00:27:39,532
you do have to apply
and then they have to accept you.

628
00:27:39,532 --> 00:27:40,450
And then you get in

629
00:27:40,450 --> 00:27:43,411
and then some schools
are for the full paramedic.

630
00:27:43,411 --> 00:27:46,498
I mean, they might it might be
an accelerator program or they're doing it

631
00:27:46,498 --> 00:27:49,459
in a year. More traditional
is spread out over four semesters.

632
00:27:49,459 --> 00:27:51,169
So two years.

633
00:27:51,169 --> 00:27:54,923
and then what they do is they
go to school and they do some practical,

634
00:27:55,048 --> 00:27:59,052
they do some lab work
where they're practicing certain skills.

635
00:27:59,052 --> 00:28:02,389
You know, splinting skills, IV
skills and stuff, intubation skills.

636
00:28:02,514 --> 00:28:06,351
So I mean, paramedics, paramedics
have to be masters of airway management.

637
00:28:06,768 --> 00:28:10,105
and so, and then they, they do clinicals,
and so they come out

638
00:28:10,105 --> 00:28:13,400
and they ride along with us
and, get to practice all those skills.

639
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:16,695
And so, so for anyone who's interested in
doing that, I mean, there's

640
00:28:17,278 --> 00:28:18,488
great schools around here.

641
00:28:18,488 --> 00:28:21,116
You know, and so great programs
and then come,

642
00:28:21,116 --> 00:28:24,119
come hang out with us and see if,
you know, our service makes sense to you.

643
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:26,663
And, and if so, then hey put 
in an application.

644
00:28:26,663 --> 00:28:27,372
That's amazing.

645
00:28:27,372 --> 00:28:29,624
And I heard EMSSTAT
has like an externship program.

646
00:28:29,624 --> 00:28:30,500
Yes. Yes.

647
00:28:30,500 --> 00:28:33,586
So we started this
about a year and a half ago.

648
00:28:33,586 --> 00:28:36,798
So I've been in my role at EMSSTAT
for about two years now.

649
00:28:37,048 --> 00:28:41,010
And so when I came on board,
we lose paramedics

650
00:28:41,010 --> 00:28:44,556
every year to other services
such as fire departments.

651
00:28:44,556 --> 00:28:45,807
I mean, they have they have a,

652
00:28:45,807 --> 00:28:48,476
they have a state pension program
that it's very difficult to compete with.

653
00:28:48,476 --> 00:28:50,228
Some go to the police department

654
00:28:50,228 --> 00:28:51,688
and we've had several who, you know,

655
00:28:51,688 --> 00:28:54,023
go to have gone on
to medical school and stuff.

656
00:28:54,023 --> 00:28:57,652
So but our EXTERN program
really kind of came about

657
00:28:57,652 --> 00:29:00,947
because we were losing a lot of people
very quickly to the fire departments.

658
00:29:00,947 --> 00:29:03,867
So we know when the fire academies are
because everybody like applies

659
00:29:03,867 --> 00:29:06,536
not everybody, but we did lose
a lot of folks very quickly.

660
00:29:06,536 --> 00:29:10,790
And I went, you know, we need to be able
to grab folks earlier in the program.

661
00:29:10,790 --> 00:29:13,376
So because we had EMTs
and we had paramedics

662
00:29:13,376 --> 00:29:17,589
and so I came up with the idea
of a paramedic extern program.

663
00:29:17,839 --> 00:29:22,427
And basically what it is, is it an EMT who
says, I want to go to paramedic school.

664
00:29:22,635 --> 00:29:25,180
And so what we do is
we give them a full time job.

665
00:29:25,180 --> 00:29:28,308
And so our paramedics, 
some of them work 12 hour shifts

666
00:29:28,308 --> 00:29:31,352
full time, some work 24 hour shifts
like the fire department.

667
00:29:31,352 --> 00:29:35,440
So, I did I did that for 15 years.

668
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,318
I don't want to go back to it,
but there are a lot of people who enjoy it

669
00:29:38,318 --> 00:29:40,695
because you end up working
only ten days out of the month.

670
00:29:40,695 --> 00:29:43,698
That's ten, 24 hour days,
but it's still ten days out of the month.

671
00:29:43,865 --> 00:29:48,369
And so, anyway, so you get a full time
job, you know, with us and,

672
00:29:48,453 --> 00:29:52,123
and we basically schedule your,
you know, your schedule

673
00:29:52,123 --> 00:29:53,875
around your school schedule.

674
00:29:53,875 --> 00:29:56,419
And so if you need to be off for school
to get you off for school,

675
00:29:56,419 --> 00:29:59,464
the other nice thing
is that through Norman Regional,

676
00:29:59,756 --> 00:30:03,343
through HR tuition reimbursement
and then also our Norman

677
00:30:03,343 --> 00:30:05,428
Regional Foundation,
you can apply for scholarships.

678
00:30:05,428 --> 00:30:08,723
So if they, if they work it right,
they can actually get all of paramedic

679
00:30:08,723 --> 00:30:09,891
school paid for.

680
00:30:09,891 --> 00:30:10,725
That's amazing.

681
00:30:10,725 --> 00:30:13,353
yeah, absolutely. I mean I was,
I wish I had that when I was.

682
00:30:13,353 --> 00:30:15,396
yeah. That's a really good offer.
That's a good that's a great opportunity.

683
00:30:15,396 --> 00:30:18,107
And that's
that is kind of back to what I was saying before.

684
00:30:18,107 --> 00:30:21,277
That is one of the huge benefits
of being a hospital based health

685
00:30:21,319 --> 00:30:22,904
care system or a EMS system.

686
00:30:22,904 --> 00:30:26,908
So because we have the benefits of,
you know, tuition reimbursement and having

687
00:30:26,908 --> 00:30:30,537
a great hospital foundation that supports
us, you know, with scholarships.

688
00:30:30,870 --> 00:30:34,457
So but the EXTERN program,
so when when they're done with it,

689
00:30:34,457 --> 00:30:36,084
they also get
like a little bit of a pay bump,

690
00:30:36,084 --> 00:30:38,628
you know,
as they move through the program.

691
00:30:38,628 --> 00:30:39,921
And then after they're done,

692
00:30:39,921 --> 00:30:42,549
they take their 
what's called the paramedical registry,

693
00:30:42,549 --> 00:30:45,552
which would be the paramedic version
of the NCLEX for for nursing.

694
00:30:45,802 --> 00:30:48,137
So they take the registry
and after they get their card,

695
00:30:48,137 --> 00:30:50,431
then they have a guaranteed paramedic
slot with us.

696
00:30:50,431 --> 00:30:51,599
So they get a job after they.

697
00:30:51,599 --> 00:30:53,601
Yeah, they got a. Job there
and that's amazing. Yeah.

698
00:30:53,601 --> 00:30:54,769
Yeah, that works out well.

699
00:30:54,769 --> 00:30:57,397
Yeah, that's the
that's right. Win win for everybody. Yeah.

700
00:30:57,397 --> 00:31:00,525
So kind of touching base again
with, with students

701
00:31:00,525 --> 00:31:03,528
and and soon to be prospective healers.

702
00:31:03,611 --> 00:31:07,073
well one of the things that I'm doing
kind of on the side of getting an MBA

703
00:31:07,073 --> 00:31:10,326
and you also have one to,
I believe from Southern Nazarene.

704
00:31:10,326 --> 00:31:10,493
Yes, correct.

705
00:31:10,493 --> 00:31:14,581
And so how do you think getting an MBA
has really helped

706
00:31:14,581 --> 00:31:17,917
you, like, on a daily basis in your role?

707
00:31:18,501 --> 00:31:19,669
I think, Yeah. Great question.

708
00:31:19,669 --> 00:31:23,423
So I went back to,
I mean, my kind of, my career aspirations

709
00:31:23,423 --> 00:31:24,716
when I was like, hey,

710
00:31:24,716 --> 00:31:27,594
you know, I'd like to go back to school
and kind of do some of the things.

711
00:31:27,594 --> 00:31:31,347
I mean, my, my career aspirations really
were to get into hospital administration.

712
00:31:31,681 --> 00:31:34,017
And so and I mean, you got
you got to go back to

713
00:31:34,017 --> 00:31:36,144
you got to have the right schooling
and everything, but also,

714
00:31:36,144 --> 00:31:38,730
you know, have to have a good diverse
background for things.

715
00:31:38,730 --> 00:31:43,276
So I think getting,
you know, my MBA really helped out

716
00:31:43,276 --> 00:31:45,445
because I'm understanding
the other side of health

717
00:31:45,445 --> 00:31:47,155
care, the business side of health care.

718
00:31:47,155 --> 00:31:51,659
So the marketing aspect, you know,
the finance aspect, the accounting aspect,

719
00:31:51,951 --> 00:31:53,620
I wanted to be able to have a conversation

720
00:31:53,620 --> 00:31:56,664
with the Chief
Financial officer intelligently, you know.

721
00:31:56,664 --> 00:31:59,918
So, I got to meet with our previous one

722
00:31:59,918 --> 00:32:04,088
when I was early in my MBA school
and he sat down

723
00:32:04,088 --> 00:32:06,174
and went over all the hospital
finances, you know, with me.

724
00:32:06,174 --> 00:32:08,176
And so that was really, really nice.

725
00:32:08,176 --> 00:32:11,346
He started out by saying, Hey,
do you know what a balance sheet is?

726
00:32:11,346 --> 00:32:13,806
And I was like,
Yes, sir. And he, okay, good.

727
00:32:13,806 --> 00:32:14,724
You just saved me an hour.

728
00:32:14,724 --> 00:32:18,895
So anyway, but it's important because,
I mean, health care is a business.

729
00:32:19,103 --> 00:32:22,523
And so on the front side of things,
you know, on the patient care

730
00:32:22,523 --> 00:32:24,776
side of things,
we don't necessarily think about that.

731
00:32:24,776 --> 00:32:26,736
We don't think about, okay, hey,
you know what?

732
00:32:26,736 --> 00:32:30,031
I just keep opening up all these sterile
packages and stuff and yeah, whatever.

733
00:32:30,031 --> 00:32:33,117
I just, you know,
I need it and stuff was, you know, on the

734
00:32:33,284 --> 00:32:36,120
on the business side we're like, all right,
that's, that's wasteful and stuff too.

735
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:40,583
I mean, we have to control our expenses,
but it's also, I think, being proactive

736
00:32:40,583 --> 00:32:43,378
and thinking about like where can we go,
you know, what things.

737
00:32:43,378 --> 00:32:47,006
So one of the things that I was tasked
with early on was making

738
00:32:47,215 --> 00:32:50,969
EMSSTAT more profitable, you know, in
in the health care system so that we are,

739
00:32:51,386 --> 00:32:55,723
you know, adding, you know,
not just intrinsic value and, you know,

740
00:32:55,723 --> 00:33:00,853
patient care value, but also monetarily,
you know, and so and it took two years.

741
00:33:00,853 --> 00:33:04,315
But I mean, we we are turning
a great profit, you know, you know, adding

742
00:33:04,315 --> 00:33:07,610
that back into our bottom line, you know,
for the for the health care system.

743
00:33:07,860 --> 00:33:10,822
But it's also being able to interface
with all of the other

744
00:33:10,822 --> 00:33:14,659
non clinical, health care folks,
you know, within the health system.

745
00:33:14,659 --> 00:33:17,286
So it's been very, very helpful.

746
00:33:17,286 --> 00:33:21,207
So kind of, I like what you said about
health care being in business, right?

747
00:33:21,624 --> 00:33:23,960
And so one of the things that I keep
kind of going to the pandemic,

748
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:28,756
but one of the things that we,
I've always kind of heard or assumed

749
00:33:29,048 --> 00:33:32,635
is, is that the pandemic really did hit
hospitals systems hard.

750
00:33:32,969 --> 00:33:34,178
There is that notion out there,

751
00:33:34,178 --> 00:33:37,557
which is why sometimes they've had to cut
jobs in some cases in order to cut costs.

752
00:33:38,182 --> 00:33:41,769
But to me,
if if there's more people getting sick,

753
00:33:42,311 --> 00:33:45,356
logically, wouldn't
that mean that the hospital

754
00:33:45,356 --> 00:33:48,234
was actually making more money
because you're having more E.R.

755
00:33:48,234 --> 00:33:50,486
visits, more hospital
admissions, technically, right?

756
00:33:50,486 --> 00:33:52,030
Yeah. No, great question.

757
00:33:52,030 --> 00:33:54,949
so it it depends.

758
00:33:54,949 --> 00:33:57,076
So more volume typically.

759
00:33:57,076 --> 00:33:58,036
So if I were to

760
00:33:58,036 --> 00:34:01,247
if I were to just kind of take a look,
you know, like at the business

761
00:34:01,247 --> 00:34:04,333
case of health care, volume

762
00:34:04,542 --> 00:34:07,670
solves
certain problems and creates others.

763
00:34:08,004 --> 00:34:11,507
So in other words,
if you already have a negative margins,

764
00:34:11,507 --> 00:34:14,510
so in other words, like your
your business is losing money,

765
00:34:14,927 --> 00:34:18,473
more volume is typically probably
not going to help that out.

766
00:34:18,681 --> 00:34:21,225
In other words,
you're just going to lose money faster.

767
00:34:21,225 --> 00:34:21,809
And so

768
00:34:21,809 --> 00:34:25,980
but if you are a profitable service,
you know, the more volume should help out.

769
00:34:25,980 --> 00:34:27,231
So it makes sense.

770
00:34:27,231 --> 00:34:31,194
The problem with the pandemic is that
and this is also another side of,

771
00:34:31,194 --> 00:34:32,320
you know, getting your masters

772
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:36,240
in business administration is the
is the economics of it.

773
00:34:36,240 --> 00:34:39,494
And so and the economics,
I mean, we talk about supply and demand.

774
00:34:39,494 --> 00:34:41,287
And so where was the demand?

775
00:34:41,287 --> 00:34:42,705
The demand was for nursing,

776
00:34:42,705 --> 00:34:46,626
you know, in New York, in Washington,
you know, in some of these hard hit areas.

777
00:34:46,793 --> 00:34:50,046
And so the high demand, well,
guess what also came with the high demand

778
00:34:50,254 --> 00:34:53,257
was the the costs of health care went up.

779
00:34:53,424 --> 00:34:57,678
I mean, it is like one of the top,
you know, for our GDP, for our country.

780
00:34:57,678 --> 00:34:59,764
It is one of the top things out there.

781
00:34:59,764 --> 00:35:02,391
You know, what we spend for on on health
care.

782
00:35:02,391 --> 00:35:06,771
And so, and then the supply chain issues,
that was also another thing

783
00:35:06,771 --> 00:35:10,900
that got hit hard because now
you have people working in, you know,

784
00:35:10,942 --> 00:35:13,778
getting supplies, medical supplies,
all those folks are getting sick.

785
00:35:13,778 --> 00:35:16,072
Well, the demand is still going up,
you know, for that.

786
00:35:16,072 --> 00:35:18,407
But they can't keep up.
And so what do they do?

787
00:35:18,407 --> 00:35:20,243
They raise their prices
you know, so it's like

788
00:35:20,243 --> 00:35:21,744
like we can't do this for everybody,

789
00:35:21,744 --> 00:35:24,205
but we're going to give it
to like the highest bidder and stuff.

790
00:35:24,205 --> 00:35:27,416
So, I mean, just watching the economics
of of health care,

791
00:35:27,416 --> 00:35:30,419
you know, during the pandemic,
I mean, it was just

792
00:35:30,628 --> 00:35:33,881
I would say from an academic perspective,
I mean, it was impressive to see it

793
00:35:34,215 --> 00:35:35,508
happen, living through it,

794
00:35:35,508 --> 00:35:36,592
it was a nightmare, of course,

795
00:35:36,592 --> 00:35:39,762
because now we have nurses
who are leading to good contracts.

796
00:35:39,762 --> 00:35:40,888
Well, that hurts us.

797
00:35:40,888 --> 00:35:44,934
And so and then when their hourly
wages, wages started going up

798
00:35:44,934 --> 00:35:46,853
because they're doing contracts
now, everybody wants that.

799
00:35:46,853 --> 00:35:49,981
So everyone feels that they deserve,
you know, more pay.

800
00:35:50,148 --> 00:35:51,065
And I get it.

801
00:35:51,065 --> 00:35:54,652
But it's also that's
why hospitals across the country

802
00:35:54,819 --> 00:35:56,654
were having negative bottom lines.

803
00:35:56,654 --> 00:35:58,447
You know, for the past three years.

804
00:35:58,447 --> 00:36:00,533
I mean, the federal government
helped out a little bit,

805
00:36:00,533 --> 00:36:03,619
you know, with that with PPP,
you know, ARPA and stuff.

806
00:36:03,619 --> 00:36:04,871
But I mean, it wasn't enough.

807
00:36:04,871 --> 00:36:08,875
And so and we're finally at a point now
where we're able to kind of like, right

808
00:36:08,875 --> 00:36:12,628
the ship, you know,
or balance things out financially.

809
00:36:12,628 --> 00:36:16,591
But it's that's why
you can't just leave that to the CFO.

810
00:36:16,924 --> 00:36:21,679
So the CFO cannot be the only person who
understands hospital finances and stuff.

811
00:36:21,679 --> 00:36:24,724
So I think that's
why having more health care leaders,

812
00:36:24,891 --> 00:36:27,768
you know, who understand,
you know, business and finance and stuff.

813
00:36:27,768 --> 00:36:31,105
So because if you can talk both languages,
then I think all the better.

814
00:36:31,189 --> 00:36:34,275
So the issue with the pandemic was
it wasn't just a matter of,

815
00:36:34,984 --> 00:36:37,486
people getting more sick,
but it was also because

816
00:36:37,486 --> 00:36:41,032
you had a whole system
kind of crashing down, the economic system.

817
00:36:41,365 --> 00:36:44,368
That's where the majority of the damage
to the hospital systems was coming

818
00:36:44,410 --> 00:36:47,955
happening because of rising costs,
because of supply issues and so on.

819
00:36:48,039 --> 00:36:49,498
Yeah, absolutely right. Yeah.

820
00:36:50,583 --> 00:36:52,460
It's, it's very interesting.

821
00:36:52,460 --> 00:36:56,505
I think the, the pandemic in general
has kind of like changed

822
00:36:56,505 --> 00:36:59,508
how we look at jobs little bit and

823
00:37:00,384 --> 00:37:04,597
and I guess maybe it affected,
I mean we've talked about this before

824
00:37:04,597 --> 00:37:08,267
on the podcast, but maybe affected
burnout rates and things like that too.

825
00:37:08,601 --> 00:37:11,604
But have you seen,

826
00:37:11,646 --> 00:37:14,148
I guess after the pandemic,
have you seen like a rise

827
00:37:14,148 --> 00:37:17,818
or like a fall in people
looking for health care jobs,

828
00:37:17,818 --> 00:37:20,780
or have you seen a change at all
or we've seen.

829
00:37:20,780 --> 00:37:24,533
So I mean, during the pandemic
and also post pandemic.

830
00:37:24,533 --> 00:37:27,286
So I'll speak for nursing
and I'll speak for paramedics.

831
00:37:27,286 --> 00:37:30,665
So nursing, we saw a lot of emergency
department nurses leave

832
00:37:30,665 --> 00:37:32,500
because they're like,
I don't want to do this.

833
00:37:32,500 --> 00:37:34,043
I don't want to put my family at risk.

834
00:37:34,043 --> 00:37:37,713
You know, I'm getting paid the same amount
that I have, you know, for however long.

835
00:37:37,713 --> 00:37:39,382
And so the like. I'm going to go do home
health.

836
00:37:39,382 --> 00:37:41,592
I mean, that's just
I mean, the hours are better.

837
00:37:41,592 --> 00:37:46,055
And, you know, I don't have to worry about
like walking into the next terrible bug

838
00:37:46,305 --> 00:37:48,140
that I'm going to take back
and get my kids sick with.

839
00:37:48,140 --> 00:37:49,600
So there was that.

840
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:51,978
and some people just got out of health
care completely.

841
00:37:51,978 --> 00:37:53,396
They're like, You know what? I'm out

842
00:37:54,355 --> 00:37:55,940
with paramedics,

843
00:37:55,940 --> 00:37:58,651
because of the nursing shortage.

844
00:37:58,651 --> 00:38:00,236
So a lot of health care

845
00:38:00,236 --> 00:38:03,990
systems started realizing that paramedics
can do more than just 911 calls.

846
00:38:04,240 --> 00:38:07,910
And so now we've got paramedics
working in cath labs. For a while,

847
00:38:07,910 --> 00:38:10,913
we've had paramedics working in emergency
departments, which that makes sense,

848
00:38:11,038 --> 00:38:13,749
that they're working in cath labs,
they're working in ICU,

849
00:38:13,749 --> 00:38:17,878
they're working in other nontraditional
paramedic roles, and they're doing

850
00:38:17,878 --> 00:38:20,881
all their paramedic skills
because your paramedic is your person

851
00:38:20,881 --> 00:38:24,135
who can who does all your advanced cardiac
life support drugs.

852
00:38:24,176 --> 00:38:27,096
You can do your airway management,
you can run your code for you.

853
00:38:27,096 --> 00:38:28,472
You can do those critical things.

854
00:38:28,472 --> 00:38:32,601
And so, so what that does is now
since there's more options for,

855
00:38:32,601 --> 00:38:36,480
you know, paramedics, which, great for
my profession, I mean, that's fantastic

856
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:40,192
but also from a staffing a 911 truck,
you know from an EMS system

857
00:38:40,401 --> 00:38:44,905
it makes it more challenging because now 
the market has grown for paramedics

858
00:38:44,905 --> 00:38:46,657
and we were already short before

859
00:38:46,657 --> 00:38:48,951
and now we're definitely short now
as far as like getting, you know,

860
00:38:48,951 --> 00:38:50,244
new folks coming in.

861
00:38:50,244 --> 00:38:52,371
Wow, That's really cool.

862
00:38:52,371 --> 00:38:52,705
Okay.

863
00:38:52,705 --> 00:38:56,375
So we'll take a step back
from the pandemic and,

864
00:38:56,375 --> 00:39:00,629
let's talk about more about EMSSTAT
and how we're involved in the community.

865
00:39:00,629 --> 00:39:01,756
We heard that

866
00:39:01,756 --> 00:39:04,383
EMSSTAT does a lot of community outreach,
and I was wondering

867
00:39:04,383 --> 00:39:06,510
if you could speak to that a little bit.
Sure. Yeah. No.

868
00:39:06,510 --> 00:39:07,970
And being part of the community

869
00:39:07,970 --> 00:39:10,014
and also being part of the health system
it really helps out.

870
00:39:10,014 --> 00:39:12,224
So we do we do a number of things.

871
00:39:12,224 --> 00:39:15,227
some of those are
we do a lot of standbys,

872
00:39:15,519 --> 00:39:18,230
for, for different events.

873
00:39:18,230 --> 00:39:20,775
some of those we get paid for,
some of those we, we,

874
00:39:20,775 --> 00:39:24,612
we volunteer, I mean we pay the staff
and I mean the system we don't charge for

875
00:39:24,612 --> 00:39:28,574
such as we always have a presence
at the major events like 4th of July.

876
00:39:28,574 --> 00:39:33,454
So everyone's out at Reeve's Park or,
you know, the park up in,

877
00:39:35,539 --> 00:39:37,416
Thomas Park up in Moore.

878
00:39:37,416 --> 00:39:39,502
So we will, we will do standbys for that.

879
00:39:39,502 --> 00:39:43,339
We're doing Medieval Fair,
so we always have a presence for that. 

880
00:39:43,547 --> 00:39:45,007
Oh that's awesome.
Norman Music Fest.

881
00:39:45,007 --> 00:39:48,010
You know, we're always out at that,
every single,

882
00:39:48,177 --> 00:39:51,764
O.U. home football game, actually,
pretty much every O.U. athletic event.

883
00:39:51,764 --> 00:39:53,516
I mean, we're pretty much at and stuff.

884
00:39:53,516 --> 00:39:54,725
And so we have a great working

885
00:39:54,725 --> 00:39:58,229
relationship with the O.U. athletic department,
so they want us everywhere.

886
00:39:58,312 --> 00:40:00,064
So I'm like, that's great.

887
00:40:00,064 --> 00:40:01,482
And then some other things.

888
00:40:01,482 --> 00:40:03,234
I mean, we go do demos.

889
00:40:03,234 --> 00:40:05,277
I mean,
I mean, a lot for elementary schools.

890
00:40:05,277 --> 00:40:08,030
So we'll get a counselor
who calls us and says,

891
00:40:08,030 --> 00:40:09,865
Hey, can you do like a touch a truck

892
00:40:09,865 --> 00:40:11,784
and just kind of like show
the third graders this and that.

893
00:40:11,784 --> 00:40:14,787
And that's that's fun do.

894
00:40:14,870 --> 00:40:15,413
That's adorable. We'll

895
00:40:15,413 --> 00:40:19,417
go over to safety town, you know, and so
and so and we talk about safety

896
00:40:19,417 --> 00:40:21,043
because they're learning
biking safety and stuff.

897
00:40:21,043 --> 00:40:22,461
And so we go over there and talk.

898
00:40:22,461 --> 00:40:24,088
One of the things that Norman
Regional's done

899
00:40:24,088 --> 00:40:27,174
for a long time for third graders in
this area is Kids are Special People.

900
00:40:27,508 --> 00:40:29,635
And so
and we do a demo for that and stuff.

901
00:40:29,635 --> 00:40:32,179
And so we're getting,
you know, we're, we're exposing,

902
00:40:32,179 --> 00:40:35,599
you know, children at a young age
to, you know, who we are and what it is.

903
00:40:35,599 --> 00:40:38,477
And just because you see an ambulance,
it's not it's not a scary thing.

904
00:40:38,477 --> 00:40:40,312
You know, we're here to help you out,
you know, and stuff.

905
00:40:40,312 --> 00:40:44,066
And so, you know, teach kids on how to,
you know, how to call 911.

906
00:40:44,066 --> 00:40:48,028
So and we, we also interface anywhere
we're doing the police

907
00:40:48,028 --> 00:40:50,990
or the fire departments are doing a demo.
We're probably there as well.

908
00:40:50,990 --> 00:40:55,536
So, October 2nd at the Sooner Mall,
we'll be doing National Night Out,

909
00:40:55,828 --> 00:40:56,537
you know, again.

910
00:40:56,537 --> 00:41:00,249
So and that's just where you have
all the public safety agencies come out.

911
00:41:00,332 --> 00:41:01,709
A lot of different things. Norman

912
00:41:01,709 --> 00:41:04,712
Regional actually
has a pretty decent sized presence there

913
00:41:04,837 --> 00:41:07,673
and you know and the community
just kind of see what you do.

914
00:41:07,673 --> 00:41:10,843
We bring out our disaster trailer,
we bring out all of our SWAT

915
00:41:10,843 --> 00:41:14,805
Medic stuff, so we have SWAT Medics that
work in conjunction with the SWAT officers

916
00:41:14,930 --> 00:41:16,265
and they bring all their gear out.

917
00:41:16,265 --> 00:41:18,893
We bring all of our bikes out
so they can see what we do.

918
00:41:18,893 --> 00:41:21,770
Every year we do
demonstrations for Leadership.

919
00:41:21,770 --> 00:41:23,189
Norman And so, I mean,

920
00:41:23,189 --> 00:41:26,275
the next round of leaders for Norman,
they get to see what we do.

921
00:41:26,275 --> 00:41:27,651
So yeah, I mean all these things.

922
00:41:27,651 --> 00:41:30,404
So the big next big event is October 2nd,
you're saying.

923
00:41:30,404 --> 00:41:32,740
Well, I would say, you know,
when football season starts up. Football season.

924
00:41:32,740 --> 00:41:35,075
That's, that's, that's when the big events
are going to be occurring.

925
00:41:35,075 --> 00:41:37,244
So we actually had
a very challenging thing

926
00:41:37,244 --> 00:41:42,208
when Norman Music Fest was happening
because that was also at the same time

927
00:41:42,208 --> 00:41:43,125
that there was a concert

928
00:41:43,125 --> 00:41:47,546
occurring at the stadium and so
and it was coined "Fill the Stadium."

929
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:53,260
So we've never done two
major events at the exact time in Norman.

930
00:41:53,260 --> 00:41:56,388
It's always like just a football game
or just a music fest.

931
00:41:56,597 --> 00:41:59,183
When you start like combining
overlapping those things, 

932
00:41:59,183 --> 00:42:02,186
So we as a public safety community,
we meet, we have public

933
00:42:02,186 --> 00:42:05,147
safety meetings actually
in this building at The Well every month.

934
00:42:05,147 --> 00:42:08,817
And so police, fire, EMS dispatch,
Cleveland County Sheriff's Office,

935
00:42:09,193 --> 00:42:11,820
the health department we all show up
and we just talk about,

936
00:42:11,820 --> 00:42:13,864
you know, anything going on
in Norman and,

937
00:42:13,864 --> 00:42:16,158
you know, any inter-agency
things that we need to talk about.

938
00:42:16,158 --> 00:42:19,161
We start a meeting every week 
to plan for that because, I mean,

939
00:42:19,370 --> 00:42:22,414
as you can imagine, I mean, doubling
the size of Norman, you know, for

940
00:42:22,414 --> 00:42:26,210
those events is very concerning,
you know, from a public safety standpoint.

941
00:42:26,210 --> 00:42:27,545
So everything went fine.

942
00:42:27,545 --> 00:42:30,589
Actually, the events were smaller
in attendance than anticipated,

943
00:42:30,589 --> 00:42:33,968
but we also think that with the SEC, you
know, coming,

944
00:42:33,968 --> 00:42:36,470
you know, a year from this fall,
I mean, we're just going to have

945
00:42:36,470 --> 00:42:38,514
a lot more traffic,
you know, coming in here.

946
00:42:38,514 --> 00:42:40,849
So we want to make sure
that as a public safety committee

947
00:42:40,849 --> 00:42:42,476
that we're ready to meet that demand.

948
00:42:42,476 --> 00:42:44,520
And so I feel like Oklahoma is
just really growing.

949
00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:46,855
It is it is a. Great time to be here.

950
00:42:46,855 --> 00:42:47,314
I know.

951
00:42:47,314 --> 00:42:49,316
I used to I used to,

952
00:42:49,316 --> 00:42:51,569
you know, tell everybody
that Oklahoma is the best kept secret,

953
00:42:51,569 --> 00:42:53,654
but now everyone's found out about Oklahoma.
That's right. That's right.

954
00:42:53,654 --> 00:42:54,363
They're coming.

955
00:42:54,363 --> 00:42:56,991
They're coming. Come enjoy our heat
and humidity.

956
00:42:56,991 --> 00:43:00,327
Yes. Well, Mr. Hurley
thank you so much for joining us today. Absolutely, yeah. 

957
00:43:00,327 --> 00:43:04,915
We, this has been an educational
experience, eye opening all the way from

958
00:43:05,124 --> 00:43:09,378
the resources that our Norman community
has to a special field that,

959
00:43:09,503 --> 00:43:13,966
young minds can attain to acquire
and be be

960
00:43:14,008 --> 00:43:17,928
a part of just not just their community,
but emergency staff and healers.

961
00:43:17,928 --> 00:43:20,931
And so we, we can't
thank you enough for being here with us.

962
00:43:21,223 --> 00:43:21,473
Thank you. Yeah.

963
00:43:21,473 --> 00:43:24,560
Thank you so much for taking the time
and answering all of our questions.

964
00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:27,438
And really,
I think you did a wonderful job

965
00:43:27,438 --> 00:43:30,316
of explaining the business
aspect of health care,

966
00:43:30,316 --> 00:43:34,695
and I think that's often understated
and also also difficult to understand.

967
00:43:34,695 --> 00:43:36,780
And so I think it took a person

968
00:43:36,780 --> 00:43:41,076
of of your experience to really be able
to put that in very simple layman's terms.

969
00:43:41,118 --> 00:43:43,078
Really appreciate you doing that for us.

970
00:43:43,078 --> 00:43:43,412
Thank you.

971
00:43:43,412 --> 00:43:46,957
I felt like you're the perfect person
to do that because you've seen both sides.

972
00:43:46,957 --> 00:43:49,752
It's not something that they teach us
in med school.

973
00:43:49,752 --> 00:43:52,129
You know, we're books,
books, books, clinics, clinics,

974
00:43:52,129 --> 00:43:53,088
clinics and they just throw you in it.

975
00:43:53,088 --> 00:43:55,966
On 4 hours of sleep every night.
Yeah.

976
00:43:55,966 --> 00:43:57,009
Good luck with your MBA.

977
00:43:57,009 --> 00:43:59,178
Thank you. I applaud you for doing it.
Thank you. Thank you.

978
00:43:59,178 --> 00:43:59,553
Thank you.

979
00:43:59,553 --> 00:44:01,639
And so thank you again, sir.

980
00:44:01,639 --> 00:44:04,558
And, 
thank you listeners for joining us today.

981
00:44:04,558 --> 00:44:09,229
And as always, be safe,
be healthy, and stay classy, my friends.

982
00:44:09,229 --> 00:44:10,272
And stay out of trouble.