On Sunday November 1, 2009, Med-Ride donated the service of its vehicles and drivers, to the Kidney Foundation by transporting people to and from the walk for free.  You can reserve a pickup in advance through our Contact Us page while openings are still available.  Leave your name and address with a telephone number so that we can confirm your pickup prior to October 29th.  We will pick up from a safe stop and drop off only at the walk.

Welcome to the NKF Serving Ohio

Registration Now Open for Dayton and Columbus's Kidney Walks!

The National Kidney Foundation’s Kidney Walk is a fun, inspiring, community fundraiser which calls attention to the prevention of kidney disease and the need for organ donation. It’s also an opportunity for patients, family, friends and businesses to come together to support the 26 million Americans with chronic kidney disease. It only takes a short walk to help someone take a life saving step!  For more information on Dayton and Columbus's Kidney Walk click here.

The following quote is from the Board's website.

This has been a busy time for the investigations, and the process stops for nothing. Currently we are investigating 29 complaints against services across the state. At the January 15th Board Meeting, a total of $62,000 in fines was levied against 5 different services. They included a service that had operated an unpermitted vehicle on a number of occasions, a service that had not obtained the proper insurance, and three services that were operating with only 1 certified EMS provider on their vehicles. ORC 4766 and OAC 4766 are very specific on staffing requirements. OAC 4766-2-12 states in part that all EMS vehicles shall be staffed at a minimum with 2 state certified EMS providers continually, from time of dispatch to the completion of the run. Should a non certified EMS person be required to be used as a driver, that person shall have completed an Emergency Vehicle Operators Course that meets the current NHTSA requirements. Using non-EMS certified driver does not preclude the fact that 2 EMS providers are to staff the vehicle at all times. In many of the above mentioned cases none of these requirements were met. In one case where only 1 state certified provider was on the vehicle, the certified EMT was the driver and the non-certified member was the patient care provider! This proved to be a costly mistake for the service, and could potentially have placed the public at risk. Please take a moment at your organization and ensure you are in compliance with the law. Every day we receive new complaints about MTOs. Many of you may wonder what actually constitutes an investigation from this office. In short, this is the way the process goes: Once a complaint is received, it is reviewed to determine if it is a potential violation of ORC 4766. Ohio law only allows us to investigate violations and potential violations of ORC 4766. While many of the complaints that we receive are valid complaints, some of them are out of our scope of regulatory authority. If we determine a complaint is out of our regulatory authority, we will make every effort to forward that complaint to the proper agency.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

MARION, Ill. —  An attorney says a southern Illinois woman died six days after being accidentally set ablaze during an operation at a Marion hospital.

Robert Howerton has been retained by the family of Janice McCall. He says the 65-year-old Energy woman died Sept. 8 at a Nashville, Tenn., hospital to which she was transferred.

Howerton says he's requesting records from Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion about what happened to McCall.

The hospital acknowledges in a statement that the flash fire happened but won't offer specifics, citing patient confidentiality laws.

The Tennessee state medical examiner's office says McCall died from complications of thermal burns, and her death is listed as accidental.

On Thursday, Kelsey Young, 20, died of swine flu, a week after delivering a healthy baby girl. She had become ill while pregnant. Her death was the first tied to swine flu in Franklin County, but the second in Ohio involving a pregnant woman.

In from CDC, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention:

Salmonella in the News: Outbreak of Infections Caused by Salmonella Saintpaul Since April, 887 persons infected with Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint have been identified in 38 states and the District of Columbia.

Illnesses began between April 10 and June 20, 2008, including 181 who became ill on June 1 or later. Many steps must occur between a person becoming ill and the determination that the illness was caused by the outbreak strain of Salmonella; these steps take an average of 2-3 weeks. Therefore, an illness reported today may have begun 2-3 weeks ago. Patients range in age from <1 to 99 years; 48% are female. The rate of illness is highest among persons 20 to 29 years old; the rate of illness is lowest in children 10 to 19 years old and in persons greater than 80 years old. At least 108 persons were hospitalized.  The previous rarity of this strain and the distribution of illnesses in all U.S. regions suggest that the implicated food is distributed throughout much of the country. Because many persons with Salmonella illness do not have a stool specimen tested, it is likely that many more illnesses have occurred than those reported.

Most persons infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12-72 hours after infection. Infection is usually diagnosed by culture of a stool sample. The illness usually lasts 4-7 days. Although most people recover without treatment, severe infections may occur. Infants, elderly persons, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely than others to develop severe illness. When severe infection occurs, Salmonella may spread from the intestines to the bloodstream and then to other body sites and can cause death. In these severe cases, antibiotic treatment may be necessary.