Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
Pre-hospital care service to our community is led by Hamilton Schwartz. MD, MEd and Lauren Riney, DO. Dr. Schwartz has been Pediatric Medical Director of the Cincinnati Fire Department for over a decade. Dr. Riney is the Pediatric Medical Director of Colerain Fire Department, the second largest EMS department in our area.
Combined, the Division influences pediatric pre-hospital education of over 500 paramedics in the region. Pediatric content developed as part of the Southwest Ohio Pre-hospital Protocol Committee are in used by more than 90% of EMS providers in the local region.
The division formed a pre-hospital care workgroup to further develop this topic as an academic theme. Dr. Schwartz co-founded the only critical care transport quality improvement database and collaborative – GAMUT. This international organization established quality metrics for the industry of critical care transport and published performance benchmarking of over 200 transport teams contributing data.
Dr. Schwartz also serves as EMS Agency scientific advisor for the Hospitals of the Midwest Emergency Research Node (HOMERUN) node of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN). There is growing scientific collaboration among Divisional faculty in pre-hospital research which aligns well with PECARN’s commitment to this under-developed area of science in pre-hospital emergency medicine. Divisional faculty led and contributed to collaborative research in cervical spine injury (Dr. Riney and Dr. Schwartz), sepsis in the pre-hospital environment (Lynn Babcock, MD, MS), and outcomes of pediatric pre-hospital protocols for asthma (Dr. Riney).
