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Medical director myths: Clearing the air

3 misconceptions that make your medical directors shake their heads

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Around the MCHD clinical department, we’ve had some recurrent themes pop up over the past few months that always make the medical directors shake their heads. Montgomery County Hospital District EMS service Directors Dr. Dickson and Dr. Patrick take a shot at dispelling some medical director myths on this episode of the MCHD Paramedic Podcast.

Common medical director myths:

  1. Attendants can’t take critical calls
  2. I must be in trouble when the medical director comes around
  3. I can’t be fired for clinical mistakes

Next for the playlist: Kris Kaull joins the MCHD Paramedic Podcast to discuss resiliency in EMS. “Make like Elsa and let it go.” Bypass burnout and arrive at fulfillment

Read more: 7 things you should be doing to engage your medical director

The MCHD Paramedic Podcast was launched in early 2018 in an effort to provide easily consumable core-content EMS education and insights from prehospital care thought leaders. The Clinical Services Department of The Montgomery County Hospital District EMS service developed the podcast as a tool to better engage and disseminate continuing education to our MCHD medics as well as first responders and EMS professionals nationwide.

Dr. Casey Patrick is the assistant medical director for Montgomery County Hospital District EMS and is a practicing emergency physician in multiple community emergency departments across Greater Houston. His EMS educational focus is on innovative paramedic teaching via the MCHD Paramedic Podcast. Dr. Patrick’s prehospital clinical research involves the investigation of paramedic use of bolus dose intravenous nitroglycerin for acute pulmonary edema and the implementation of lung protective ventilation strategies for intubated EMS patients. Casey and his wife, Alyssa, work and live in Conroe, Texas, and Spokane, Washington. Together they have five children: Mia, Ainsley, Brock, Dean and Will.

Dr. Dickson graduated with honors from the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio in 2001 and completed emergency medicine training at Indiana University in 2004. He serves as the EMS medical director at Montgomery County Hospital District EMS and an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. His academic interests include systems of care in stroke and other time-sensitive emergencies, neurologic emergencies and education. He is board certified in emergency medicine in both the U.S. and Australasia, and has subspecialty board certification in EMS medicine. He has authored multiple professional articles and presented at regional, national and international conferences on emergency medicine and EMS topics.