This month that preparation paid off at the Association of Air Medical Services’ 2019 Sim Cup competition, held at the annual Air Medical Transport Conference in Atlanta, Ga. Nov. 4-5.
A UC Health team of two – Jason Peng, NP, and Ellen Parsley, RN – took first place among 11 air medical transport teams from across the U.S. and Canada.
The two-day critical care skills competition tests clinical frontline staff on a wide variety of air medical transport patient scenarios. It utilizes the latest in patient simulation, and teams compete head-to-head to showcase real-time, real situation skills in front of a live audience. Teams are judged on clinical expertise, critical decision-making, procedural skill, communication, and care prioritization.
UC Health’s Peng and Parsley scored first place on both days. The final real-world scenario included six different patients from a single mass casualty scene for the two-person team to manage.
UC Health Air Care & Mobile Care has competed in the Sim Cup since 2010. This year’s success is a tribute to many people involved in previous competitions, all of which have helped the team hone their knowledge and skill in order to help patients every day, said UC Health Air Care & Mobile Care medical director William R. Hinckley, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine at the UC College of Medicine.
“I won’t hesitate to admit that it was one of the proudest moments of my professional career to date,” he said of the team’s first-place finish. “Although I really couldn’t be prouder of Jason and Ellen, this accomplishment isn’t something that two people did over the past two days. Rather, it’s something that an immense team of people accomplished over the past ten years.”
Also at the conference, Hinckley was named Medical Director of the Year by the Air Medical Physician Association (AMPA). This prestigious honor recognizes a medical director for their commitment and involvement in advancing safety and clinical practice in transport medicine.
UC Health Air Care & Mobile Care (ACMC) is celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2019.Since 1984, ACMC has served Greater Cincinnati, providing safe and world-class critical care transport medicine for patients in need of emergent specialized medical attention.
The program provides the highest level of specialized transport medicine services in Greater Cincinnati, Southeast Indiana, and Northern Kentucky and is the only program in the region accredited to provide four levels of care on the ground or in the air.
Every Air Care flight crew includes an emergency medicine physician or an acute care nurse practitioner, as well as a highly-trained flight nurse, providing patients the best chance for survival and optimal outcomes during events where every minute matters. Of the approximately 300 helicopter programs in the United States, UC Health is one of just four programs to provide this advanced level of care on every flight.