After midnight. Midwinter. A busy highway. A prolonged extrication that demands coordination across multiple agencies.

When access is difficult and the response extends well beyond the first few minutes, every operational decision matters. Protecting responders, organizing resources, maintaining communication, and coordinating rescue efforts with flight transport become essential parts of the same mission.

Join us for Med Flight Chronicles: “Against the Elements,” a moderated panel discussion exploring the operational challenges behind a complex emergency response. Representatives from responding teams will examine scene management, prolonged extrication, coordination among fire and rescue personnel, ground EMS, and Med Flight, and the decisions needed to move the response forward under difficult conditions.

The discussion will emphasize the responders’ experience: how teams organized their efforts, communicated changing needs, managed constraints, and coordinated the transition from rescue to flight transport.

Thomas Ellison, UW Health Adult Trauma Program Manager, will extend the conversation into the hospital, addressing performance improvement from the trauma program’s perspective and how reviewing a complex response can inform improvements across the continuum of care.

From the highway to the receiving hospital, this session invites participants to consider what worked, what challenged the teams, and what lessons can strengthen the next response.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

1. Identify scene safety and operational challenges associated with a nighttime winter response on a busy highway.
2. Describe strategies for coordinating agency roles, resources, and communication during prolonged extrication.
3. Explain operational considerations for integrating Med Flight and flight transport into a complex rescue response.
4. Describe how trauma program performance improvement can identify opportunities to strengthen coordination across the continuum of care.

Emergency Education Night Webinar Series Goal

The overall goal of the Emergency Education Night Webinar Series is to strengthen clinical judgment, communication, and system coordination among emergency and prehospital providers through evidence informed education that supports high risk and time sensitive patient encounters.

Target Audience

This activity is designed for:

• Emergency Medical Responders (EMR)
• Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT)
• Advanced Emergency Medical Technicians (AEMT)
• Paramedics
• Critical Care Paramedics
• Emergency department nurses
• Advanced practice providers
• Physicians
• Other healthcare professionals involved in emergency response and patient care across the prehospital and emergency department settings

CAPCE Accreditation Statement

This activity is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Prehospital Continuing Education (CAPCE) for 1.0 continuing education hour (CEH).

• CAPCE Basic CEH
• CAPCE Advanced CEH

Participants must attend the live session in its entirety and complete the required attendance verification and evaluation to receive continuing education credit.

Granting of CAPCE credit does not represent endorsement by CAPCE or its board members.

Cost

There is no cost to attend this activity.

To register for the live session, follow the link: 

UW Health Emergency Education Night Webinar Series: Med Flight Chronicles: "Against the Elements"