Chief Gary Ludwig on fixing medics’ terrible charting

Inside EMS

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In this episode of Inside EMS, cohosts Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson welcome Chief Gary Ludwig to the podcast. The group discuss imparting knowledge to new medics and Ludwig’s latest book, “385 Things Veteran EMTs and Paramedics Can Teach You: Emergency Medical Technician and Paramedic Tips and Tricks of the Trade.”

The book contains information on patient assessment, managing airways, starting IVs, penetrating trauma, crimes scenes and more.

Chief Ludwig shares his experience with terrible PCRs, and why we should be teaching medics to write reports like our law enforcement partners.

He shares tips like:

• Why you should always stay in the left lane
• How to avoid tipping stretchers
• Why to avoid abbreviations in PCRs

For a signed copy, visit www.garyludwigbooks.com.

About our guest

Gary Ludwig is a well-known author, educator, speaker, and consultant who has served in three fire departments over his career. His fire, EMS, rescue, 911 and emergency management career spans a total of 46 years, including 35 years in two metropolitan cities, St. Louis and Memphis. He has been a paramedic for over 44 years.

He served as the president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) during the 2019-20 term, and was selected as the International Career Fire Chief of the Year in 2022.

He has a master’s degree in business and management. He has written over 500 articles for professional fire and EMS publications and is the author of four books. He has also been invited to speak at over 400 professional EMS or fire conferences or seminars.

He has won numerous awards including the International Career Fire Chief of the Year in 2022, the James O. Page EMS Leadership Award in 2014 and the IAFC EMS Section’s James O Page Achievement Award in 2018.

He has managed two award-winning metropolitan EMS systems (Memphis and St. Louis) and was fire chief of an ISO Class 1 fire department (Champaign). In 2022, he was appointed by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell to the National Advisory Council for FEMA.