First of all I want to express my appreciation for those that sent cards and emails to me after my recent illness. I´m doing much better. I have suffered from migraines for many years and over the past year they have become more debilitating. Earlier this year I had a migraine and suffered what was thought to be seizure. Turns out to have been a medication reaction. I´m now on the mends and prepared to continue my work with you. Again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers. It made a difference.

As you may or may not know I´ve resigned as the Wisconsin State EMS Medical Director. The state office is in a crisis and will be going through a difficult period of reorganization. There has been little for me to do from within the office and I felt that my efforts to make substantive changes to the state would be more effective from the private sector.

I have begun my work as the Minnesota State EMS Medical Director and I´m very excited about the possibilities. To better facilitate my availability to pursue EMS projects I retired from clinical practice at Health East in the Twin Cities and have taken on the position as medical director for Health East Medical Transport which is primarily an interfacility transport program doing 40,000 transports a year. I will continue my position with Chippewa Fire District and intend to continue to live in Eau Claire.

Now, where do we go from here with you my northwoods colleagues? Eventually, we need to find a local medical director for you but if you are willing I will continue to be your medical director until we find a suitable candidate. I feel the following should be our goals for the next 6 months.

WARDS data entry by all services. In the next couple of weeks I´d like to meet by phone with whomever is responsible for WARDS data entry for their service and discuss any difficulties they are having and explain how I will access the data to perform run reviews.

BLS protocols. I have been unable to obtain a copy of Ashland Fire Department´s protocols so that ours will mesh with theirs. I have a draft of BLS protocols that I will be sending you in the next few weeks for you to review. I would like to see us approve them by June.
Advanced skills review and service visits. We need to do our annual advanced skills reviews that would have been done had I not gotten sick. I would like to propose May 16-18th. If that does not work please send me other dates that would. I would like to schedule EMTs to come to at least three different locations for me to observe them in the following.

CPR/AED/Combitube
Glucagon
Neb administration
CPAP

I provided you a draft Lights and Sirens policy and have not heard back from anyone as to whether or not that was approved.

Additionally, I would like to hear from those services that have broadband internet access at their station or could gather somewhere that they do. I have found a program on the internet that allows a very high fidelity teleconferencing capability. In this way I could conduct ´virtual meetings´ with the services. I would ask that council to task a group to examine this possibility and coordinate the details with me.

In conclusion, I want to express my gratitude to you for your patience and understanding these past 6 months. I´m looking forward to us moving forward with the great work we have accomplished.

As always, I encourage each of you to feel free to call or e-mail me anytime. I have a new home and fax phone number listed below.

Keith Wesley, MD
EMS Consulting & Education
E2965 Benrud Lane
Eau Claire, WI 54701

H: 715-713-0050
F: 715-713-0051
C: 715-579-1170

drwesley@charter.net