Virginia ITLS News (updated 11/27/07)

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IMPORTANT ITLS NOTICE

ITLS Student Fee Increase

At the 2007 ITLS Annual Meeting, it was announced that certification fees per student will be increased effective with classes held beginning January 1, 2008.  This increase is in conjunction with a Virginia Chapter fee increase. It has been 5 years since the last increase. The new fee schedule is as follows:

Classes which have already been approved for 2008 will not be subject to this increase.  Effective December 1, 2007, all class requests received for 2008 will be subject to the new pricing.

If you have any questions, please call our office at 757-220-4911.  Thank you.

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Spring 2006 - Virginia ITLS Web Portal Officially Open!!

We have developed a web portal to provide you online access/data entry to the ITLS data base.  This portal is only available to "authorized users" defined as Course Coordinators, State Affiliate Faculty and Medical Directors that will be responsible for the administrative requirements related to your ITLS course offerings.   

The portal will allow you to go "paperless" and decrease the time it takes to approve courses, ultimately providing coordinators and students with faster turn around on completed courses.  To become an approved "user" please contact Annette , or call the office at 757-220-4911, Ext. 3 and you will be set up as an "authorized user".  You can also follow this LINK to request access approval.  Please Note:  only SAF's and active Course Coordinators will be granted access to the web portal!   We look forward to hearing from you!!

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IMPORTANT NOTICE

In October 2005, the Basic Trauma Life Support (BTLS) International organization changed its name to International Trauma Life Support (ITLS).

Below is the new logo that we are transitioning to in the coming year. 

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September 2005 - OEMS Certification numbers required!             

We can no longer accept Social Security #'s as identification for students in any ITLS class.  ONLY OEMS Certification #'s will be accepted.  For questions, please call the ITLS Office at 757-220-4911.

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ALS Training Fund Contract Changes

As many of you are aware, some minor changes were recently made to the ALS Training Funds program contracts. These changes required that all contracts be re-approved by the Health Department before they could be released for use.

The new funding contracts have now been updated and have been posted to the OEMS web page.

Please visit the OEMS web site to download a copy of the new contacts for use during the remainder of this fiscal year. These contracts are MS Word documents which can complete electronically, saved to your hard drive and then print off for signatures.

In keeping with the recommendations of the ALSTF Advisory Committee, the Office has implemented only minor changes to the program contracts. These changes are outlined below.

All Contracts have been updated to include the following:

New titles/headers which include the designation FY05 so providers and Office staff can easily determine that the correct contract is being used

Updated phone number (due to our move to the Madison building) to contact the ALS Funding Administrator

Mailing address added to the ALS Funding Administrator's signature block

New e-mail address field added to the signature page. If an e-mail address is present, then the Contractor and/or the Payee will be notified via e-mail when a payment has been approved for payment by the Office

The language in Section III – L was changed to read: “Independent Contractor: When providing the services specified under this contract the Contractor shall not be deemed an “employee” or “agent” of the Virginia Department of Health. The Contractor shall act as an independent contractor and is responsible for obtaining and maintaining appropriate liability insurance, payment of all FICA, State and Federal taxes, and complying with other similar requirements which are customary in the industry. In addition, the Contractor certifies that they are not an employee, nor do they currently employ employees of the Virginia Department of Health.”

A penalty clause has been added for those courses not complying with all relevant sections of 12 VAC 5-31, the EMS Training Program Administration Manual or the specific curriculum for the course in question

All transition contracts have been updated to include the following:

     The pricing schedule has been updated to better define how payments will be prorated for courses of less than 12 students

All auxiliary contracts have been updated to include the following:

     The pricing schedule has been updated to include EMT Enhanced and EMT Shock Trauma Technicians as eligible providers

EMT-Intermediate Site Accreditation

     Beginning July 1, new EMT-I candidate sites will contract directly with the Office for accreditation funding. The contract will require Regional Council review. An administrative fee for the Regional Council has been included as a part of this new approach. All other guidelines for EMT-I site accreditation remain in effect and unchanged.

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5th Anniversary Instructor Guide

The ITLS Editorial Board has prepared a revised Scenario Grade Sheet to replace the sheet printed in the 5th Anniversary Edition of the ITLS Instructor Guide.  Due to a printing error, the second page of the sheet was omitted when published.  A copy of the revised (July 2004) grade sheet can be obtained here.

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ITLS Courses qualify for ALS Training Funds

Many of you have inquired about the use of the ALS Training Fund program available through the Office of EMS (OEMS) and whether it’s available to be applied to ITLS Programs. The answer is yes! In fact, the reimbursement to qualified coordinator/instructors is $80 per provider in a 2-day certification course, and $40 per provider in a 1-day recertification course! (Please contact OEMS prior to completing their paperwork if you have any questions concerning the appropriate forms to use.)

This is a new program from OEMS that will greatly assist many of you to fund ITLS programs. The ITLS Executive Committee worked with the OEMS to develop a workable process that is slightly different from normal course processing and paperwork requirements.

First a couple of words of CAUTION.

•    As you know, all students participating in a ITLS program must be registered. Persons are not allowed to monitor/audit ITLS Programs for CE credits.

•    Second, the ALS training funds can only be utilized for ALS providers. Only Virginia certified ALS providers qualify for ALS Training Fund reimbursement.

•    In addition to registering (announcing) a ITLS program to the VACEP office, the ITLS Coordinator must enter into an individual contract for ALS Training funds and submit a “Course Approval Request” form with the OEMS.

The revised process and deadlines for ITLS courses seeking ALS Funds are as follows:

1.    The ITLS Coordinator/Instructor must register the course with us, as usual. Be sure to use the check box to indicate ALS Training Funds are being applied for through OEMS. (Do not send us the OEMS CE approval form.)
NOTE: The ITLS Course Request must submitted to us no less than 45-60 days prior to the intended start date of the course. (vs. the 30 day requirement for all other ITLS courses not seeking ALS funding.)

2.    We will return our ITLS Course Approval letter with assigned ITLS Course number to the Course Coordinator/Instructor. A copy of this ITLS approval letter must be submitted to OEMS, along with a completed OEMS Course Approval Request Form AND a completed ALS Training Funds Auxiliary Contract (available from OEMS). An ALS ITLS program and the BLS ITLS program must be announced to the Office of EMS on separate OEMS Course Approval Request forms. Only ALS programs are eligible for funding. To receive EMS CE, a course must be announced to OEMS.
NOTE: This paperwork must be submitted directly to OEMS 30 days prior to the start date of the class.

OEMS will return to the Course Coordinator the approved signed ALS Training Funds contract, and the OEMS Course and Topic numbers prior to the start of the class.

3.    Upon completion of the ITLS course:

a. The ITLS coordinator/instructor will follow the OEMS guidelines and contract for awarding CE and to receive ALS Training Funds reimbursement. This requires submission of CE cards and the Course Summary Roster – complete with signatures - within 15 days of the course end date to OEMS.

b. The ITLS post course paperwork requirement will be extended for ALS Training fund programs only, to 60 days (vs. 30 days) to allow OEMS reimbursement to be received. Follow normal process for submitting VACEP/ITLS required post-course paperwork and appropriate certification fees.

4.    The OEMS will supply VACEP/ITLS with a copy of the Course Summary Roster of all providers that completed the course for which ALS training funds were applied. Out-of-state providers do not qualify for ALS training funds, although they may participate in your course and if included on the Summary Roster you must strikethrough those names before submitting the roster to OEMS. If you do have a combined class (ALS and BLS providers), you will need to submit on a separate roster the BLS ITLS program with accompanying CE cards to OEMS. (Remember, for BLS providers to receive Category 1 CE, a BLS ITLS program must be announced to the Office of EMS.) You will need to submit to VACEP/ITLS your VACEP/ITLS summary course forms, for BLS providers to received CE credit.

5.    The student rosters submitted to VACEP/ITLS will be compared to the OEMS ALS Training Funds roster. Any discrepancies will be reported to the ITLS Coordinator/Instructor and the Office of EMS. Discrepancies may include: concerns regarding ITLS certifications, non-registered students, ineligible CE credits and/or any fraudulently conducted or reported programs.

You all know how important the integrity of CE and the ITLS programs are and trust you will continue to follow the policies and procedures of both the Office of EMS and the VACEP/ITLS programs. This is a new process for you to take advantage of available state funding. If problems are identified, some alterations in the process may be needed by both the Office of EMS and/or Virginia ITLS.

Give us your feedback! Should you have comments, concerns or questions, please contact the VACEP/ITLS office at 757-220-4911.

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Novmeber 2004 - 5th Edition Textbook Released

Basically the textbook was redone at the insistence of the publisher and there are not many changes. Two chapters; “Head Trauma” and “Trauma in Pregnancy” were rewritten to include current material, but mainly the book includes updated pictures, and several general changes such as case studies added to each chapter; the wording “Spinal immobilization” changed to “Spinal Motion Restriction (SMR)” and “Pitfalls”, “Important Points”  and “PEARLS” have all been consolidated into “Pearls”.  A PowerPoint program that covers the changes is available here.

There are multiple new tests and a new test format (33 questions). 

Based on the relatively few changes in the new textbooks, these should interface with the old materials and provide for a successful course.

We thank you for your continued support and involvement with the ITLS program and look forward to working with you in 2004.  If you have any questions do not hesitate to call the ITLS office.    

Please contact us with your current e-mail address so we can add you to our ITLS elist for important notices. And please be sure to let us know when you change an address, whether email or postal address.

Thank you for your commitment to teach and promote trauma training in Virginia.