Causes: Disaster Aid, First Aid

Mission: Cals improves patient care in the united states and globally by providing advanced life support education to rural healthcare providers.

Programs: Rural america is home to 25% of the us population, but just 10% of doctors. In these resource limited settings, rural health care providers must treat a wide variety of emergencies, from cardiac and trauma to obstetrics and stroke, without the specialists or advanced equipment found in urban areas. Their ability to care for critically ill or injured patients can be vastly improved with appropriate training and education - specifically, the comprehensive, team-based training programs provided by cals. Nearly all of minnesota's critical access hospitals now provide cals training to their emergency department staffs, as do several hospitals in wisconsin. During the 2016-17 fiscal year, 22 provider courses, 21 trauma modules and 1 ob/neonate courses with 768 students, and designations such as doctors, advance practitioners, physician assistants and nurses were held in minnesota. In addition, 5 providers, 5 trauma module classes were held in wisconsin with a total of 169 participants in fiscal year 2016-2017. As word spreads about the lasting impact of cals education, hospitals across the country are hosting cals courses. Cals provider courses were held in keweenaw, michigan, sisseton, south dakota. In addition, we provided courses in conrad, roundup, and miles city, montana. Given its unique relevance to geographically remote healthcare teams, cals has been the primary provider of medical education to us foreign service medical personnel, stationed in embassies throughout the world, for more than 10 years. This year cals trained one class of 15 new foreign service medical personnel including physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants who were new hires for the state department. This training took place here in minneapolis. The cals curriculum is based on four key principles: building effective teams, using appropriate equipment, cultivating skills and knowledge, and implementing patient-centered care and systems. Cals is beneficial to all health care providers who deal with undifferentiated emergencies regardless of size or location of facility. It is especially designed for rural health care providers who may not have specialized emergency care personnel, but who are presented with highly critical case scenarios.