The clinical architecture of the Pinellas County EMS System supports a unique structure as it is managed through two diverse groups of people serving in complimentary roles. First, our Medical Control Board (MCB) provides administrative and medical consensus opinion from our local medical community. Their perspective uniquely qualifies them to critique system integration into the overall fabric of our community’s healthcare network. The seven physicians and four hospital administrators who constitute the Medical Control Board provide invaluable insight and counsel to the EMS Authority and the system medical director by helping establish our standards of care.

Second, the system Medical Director is the individual primarily responsible for the care delivered by the entire system. She must, by law, assume full responsibility for the actions of each emergency medical technician and paramedic in the field, making sure the defined standard of care is followed. The system medical director, through her clinical surrogates, maintains a patient-physician relationship with every person cared for. The care delivered by each certified clinician to each patient must be equivalent to the care that would be rendered if the medical director were actually caring for the patient.

Only through solid communications and effective education can the medical director direct emergency care personnel in the methods of rendering proper care through standing orders, protocols, and clinical policies.

Additionally, the medical director must have an intimate understanding and insight into the design, operations, and quality assurance of a sophisticated EMS system. Through the development and oversight of various quality assurance program components and participation in ongoing refinements of the overall structure of the system, her confidence in quality patient care and performance is validated. Ongoing quality improvement programs such as our sudden cardiac arrest, intubation, trauma, STEMI, and drowning registries assist in re-directing our priorities to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of system performance. In such a complicated system environment it may be said, “any aspect of the EMS system that affects the care of patients is a part of the Medical Director’s responsibility”.

In conclusion, the role of the Medical Control Board, medical director, On-Line Medical Control staff, Medical Communications staff, system administrators, managers, billing staff, supervisors and the behind the scenes support staff(s) all rally behind our field clinician in his or her effort to provide the best possible care to the sick and injured. Ultimately, it is the field clinician and our patients who must evaluate our effectiveness.

The senior staff of the Office of the Medical Director has endeavored to provide effective leadership tempered by over 45 years of experience and insight into the Pinellas County EMS system. The leadership and guiding principles we provide to the entire organization is accomplished through the use of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) philosophies. Of course, new options, directions and methods to guide adaptation to change are continually being reviewed and developed in order for us to continue to help provide the leadership necessary to lead the nation and the World in the provision of “World Class” EMS.

Medical Director