Community paramedicine is all the buzz in Wisconsin EMS right now.  We are learning a lot from our EMS friends in Minnesota, Texas, and elsewhere.  On May 25, Nevada became the newest state to pass CP legislation. 

Minnesota is years ahead of Wisconsin in developing community CP programs, legislation, curriculum, training, and licensing personnel.  Minnesota has extended to Wisconsin their assistance, so we can shorten the learning curve, get caught up, and use best practices they've already vetted as successful.  As we've previously reported, out of 1,000 community paramedics trained in the United States right now, Minnesota's Hennepin Technical College has trained 600 of them.

This past week we have fielded a lot of questions about CP and ways for those interested to get involved.  Here's my top six suggestions:

1. Sign up for the Rural Health CP list serve.  The link is https://lists.wisc.edu/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=cp.  I believe there are over 150 signed up to get information on CP.

2. PAAW created a webpage dedicated to serve as a central point of communication and information for those interested in CP.  The link is http://paaw.us/cp.

3. We've done several interviews on CP.  The two most recent are at these locations by two people leading CP in Minnesota and nationally.
a. Buck McAlpin from Minnesota (click here for audio interview)
b. Gary Wingrove from Mayo Clinic (click here for audio interview)

4.  The Paramedic Systems of Wisconsin conference in Green Bay on Thursday, Sept. 24 will include Minnesota's Buck McAlpin as a presenter speaking on CP.  PAAW is sponsoring his presentation.  The conference website is http://psow.org/.  The conference schedule will be announced sometime in July or early August.

5. PAAW President Patrick Ryan hosts every other Friday a CP conference call.  The next call is Friday, June 5 starting at 9:00 a.m.  The call in number is 646-929-1081.  The calls are also recorded and posted at the website noted above as item 2.  There have been 35 to 40 participants on a regular basis the past few months.  To be added to the call reminder list, contact Patrick at email president@paaw.us.

6. Wisconsin CP legislation in is draft form largely being discussed and driven by the group noted above as item 5.

Accept this posting as your invitation to join the CP conversation.