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FOUR SEMINARS

Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls, In-Service & Take-Home Seminars

 Advanced Skills Training Seminars, Two Follow-up In-Service Seminars

Revision Date: April 17, 2024, Updated with COVID-19 Pandemic

 

Hello,

 

From a 2015 Grant (Margaret L. Wendt Foundation of Buffalo, NY), we began teaching others how to successfully start-up their own Physician House Calls.  Well-received teaching began with enthusiastic University at Buffalo medical students.  Now, local, out-of-state, and Canadian physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants request us to teach how to start-up or improve their private practices of Physician House Calls. 

 

I am not recruiting or hiring.  I teach from 20 years of treating over 10,500 emergency patients by Physician House Calls, overseas (4,300+) and here in Western NY (WNY) (6,500+): www.PhysicianHouseCalls.org.  Due to public demand expressed to us and with even during COVID-19, I am equipping many others to continue safely “Caring for those in greater need, at-home” ™ with the Joy of Practicing Medicine.  We teach how to code, bill and chase-down your hard-earned income, plus reduce overhead, reduce your medical malpractice risk and premiums, and reduce nearly all other costs. It works.

 

Before COVID-19, “Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls” Seminars was only hands-on in a two-hour In-Service Seminar privately taught in physician’s homes and in the office.  During COVID-19, it was taught digitally in a Take-Home Version with excellent feedback.  It is now in its 17th Revised Edition (April 17, 2024).

 

If any physicians and mid-level providers are interested, I am happy to Email our updated six-page PowerPoint Seminar’s Outline (April 17, 2024).  Please request our Seminar Outline by Emailing me at PhysicianHouseCalls@roadrunner.com . 

 

The PowerPoint Seminar includes the 31-page, highly-referenced Seminar Notes (Notes Revision, April 17, 2024) covering everything in the updated 203+-slide PowerPoint Presentation (17th Revised Edition).  It includes COVID-19/Next Pandemic Instructions plus many practical hand-outs and our research article 1.

Sterba, JA. Wound Care on the Go. ‘Portable ER’ Allows Physician to Reinvent House Calls.  Today’s Wound Clinic. 2012, September: 18-21.

 

A required updated reference is used, “Textbook of Equipping for Disasters,” especially the 101-page Chapter Ten, a full inventory of “The Community-Based Portable ER”, plus other key Chapters and COVID-19/Next Pandemic Instructions found in: 

Sterba, JA and JE Sterba.  “Textbook of Equipping for Disasters, Sheltering at Home.”  Revised & Expanded, Sixth Edition.  Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc., 226 Center Rd., East Aurora, NY 14052, January 8, 2024; 252 pages.

To preview the Textbook, please go to www.PhysicianHouseCalls.org and scroll down the Tab, “Seminars and Publications.”  The Textbook covers full inventories (e.g. General Medical/Surgical Kit “G”, Exam Room with Minor Wound Care) plus pharmaceuticals and medical/surgical supplies with ordering information we have used the past 15 years for our 6,500+ Physician House Calls here in WNY.  Our Physician House Calls

(Emergency Physician House Calls™) use America’s first community-based and U.S. Federally-Registered PORTABLE ER®.(1.-4.)

 

“Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls” is most frequently taught by the very convenient Take-Home Version of the updated 203+-slide PowerPoint Presentation (Revision #17, April 17, 2024) including tested COVID-19/Next Pandemic Physician House Call methods.  The Textbook is also required and all updated handouts are provided.  In the Take-Home Version of the Seminar, “Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls,” current literature, accelerating national trends and local research on Physician House Calls in WNY(1.-3.) are reviewed.  Research documented the obvious; Physician House Calls are “faster, better, and cheaper” than hospital-based emergency departments (ED).(1.-2.)  Well known by the public and replicated in peer-reviewed medical literature, hospital EDs are too expensive, under-staffed, over-crowded, most-stressful with burn-out, and the confirmed major source of nosocomial I.D. infections including COVID-19.   

 

Surgical and Medical Care with Full Insurance Payment for Physician House Calls

 

Our first research study(1.) documented that in 45 patients treated by Physician House Calls in WNY, all of whom surgically-required advanced wound care (e.g., pressure injury surgical selective debridement, closure plus medical care), nine-out-of-ten (91%) of these 45 patients never needed to go to the hospital ED.  All 45 Physician House Calls were done at only 25% of average patient-care allowable insurance-charge of the hospital ED.(1.) 

 

In this study, I first had to appeal Corporate Medical Directors of National Government Services (NGS), administrators of Medicare Part B.  They reviewed our initial patient’s charts and preliminary research results in this novel research study investigating surgical advanced wound care provided at-home on Physician House Calls.  The NGS favorably ruled adding over 300 highly-reimbursed Integumentary CPT codes (e.g., surgical advanced wound care) for physician reimbursement when done at-home for all U.S. practicing physicians and mid-level providers conducting Physician House Calls.  In this 2011-2012 study (1.) patient-care, allowable insurance-reimbursement for surgical advanced wound care (e.g., pressure injury debridement) plus other necessary medical care was a range of $600-$800 per Physician House Call.  This was after the usual first lengthy comprehensive surgical and medical visit ranging from $1,100-$1,300. These payments were dependent on depth, surface area and severity of the pressure injuries being debrided and other medical care. 

 

In our follow-up research study, (2.) we investigated 100 successive patients who medically required Point of Care (POC) Labs immediately done and interpreted real-time, at-home.  In this study, as in wound care, nine-out-of-ten (89%) of these 100 patients treated on medical Physician House Calls safely stayed at-home never needing to go to the ED, or needing to be admitted over the next three days as confirmed by close follow-up.  There were no adverse events or complaints. Everyone was happy from patients, family members, and care-givers to patients’ 22 Primary Care Physicians/Providers (PCPs), medical/surgical specialists and Emergency Medicine emergency physicians working at regional hospital ED’s and Urgent Care Centers in Western New York State (WNY) near Buffalo, NY.  In this study (2.), we documented that in 100 patients who medically required immediate POC labs with bedside explanation at-home, the average patient-care allowable insurance-charge was $375.53 per patient.  These 100 medical Physician House Calls were done at 1/10th (9.8%) of the patient-care allowable insurance-charge vs. the hospital ED using nationally-reported ED statewide statistics ($3,808/single ED visit, FL, 2012).(2.)

 

Burn Out

 

Physicians and mid-level healthcare providers are burned-out!  This is well-known, reported for all private medical practices in Primary Care (Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and OB/GYN), Medical and Surgical Specialties, and in Emergency Medicine in today’s high-stress, fast-paced hospital EDs and Urgent Care Centers. 

 

This Seminar, “Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls” treated burn-out.  For example, you can conduct your own Physician House Calls conveniently on your own time.  You can also leave the clinic early and see someone in greater need, at-home, and still make it home for supper, on-time, adding many hundreds of extra dollars into your private medical practice.  This Joy of Practicing Medicine prevents burn-out.  Patients are grateful knowing that a physician, NP, or PA takes time to come, listen and care.  You can likewise aim to keep nine-out-ten of your patients from being sent to the ED, avoiding the ED waiting room, a 6.1-hr. wait in NY State, before being medically treated by a provider.(2.) 

 

Cost of the Seminar, “Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls”

 

Following COVID-19, our In-Service Seminars in doctor’s offices or in their homes have resumed.  However, this most convenient, well-received Take-Home Version of “Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls” is working very well and it has been updated with valuable feedback and suggestions from other providers.  The Take-Home Version has been recently requested by physicians on the frontlines in NYC, NJ, FL, TX and even Ontario.  The Seminar’s PowerPoint (17th Edition, 31.9 MB, updated 203+-slides) and handouts goes out same-day by Google Drive or a U.S. Mailed thumb drive.

 

The Take-Home Version of “Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls” with all referenced-handouts (see list below) is a tax-deductible donation to the Public Charity, “Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc.” of $200.00 per each physician, NP, PA, or staff member.  Included are the 11-page Seminar’s highly-referenced Lecture Notes, many handouts including easy-to-learn coding and billing (e.g., common CPTs) and our research article.( 1.) 

 

The required reference “Textbook of Equipping for Disasters, Sheltering at Home” suggested tax-deductible donation to the Public Charity, “Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc.” is an additional $60.00 per each physician, NP, PA, or other staff members.  Therefore, the Take-Home Version with required “Textbook” and all handouts is a total tax-deductible donation of $260.00 per each physician, NP, PA, or staff member.  Your tax-deductible donation of $260.00 can be mailed (check/money order), but everybody is using our website’s Donate Buttons (Credit or Debit Cards, or PayPal, but PayPal keeps 2.2%) at www.PhysicianHouseCalls.org, found under three Tabs, “Home Page”, “Contact Us”, and “Seminars and Publications”. We will gratefully Email or U.S. Mail your tax-deductible donation receipt with our Thank You Note for your taxes.

 

Handouts

Your Take-Home Version of “Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls” will include the following updated Handouts and useful items to get you started:

1. Seminar's Notes with References (31-pages), so no need to take notes.

2. Take-Home Version of the 203+-slide PowerPoint Presentation (17th Edition, April 17, 2024), "Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls" same day by Google Drive or U.S. Mailed thumb drive

3. VistaPrint Brochure of our Physician House Calls as your guide.  It works!

4. Research Article: Sterba, JA. Wound Care on the Go. ‘Portable ER’ Allows Physician to Reinvent House Calls. Today’s Wound Clinic.2012,September:18-21

5. Sterba, JA and JE Sterba.  “The Textbook of Equipping for Disasters, Sheltering at Home” Revised & Expanded, Sixth Edition (with COVID-19).  Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc., 226 Center Rd., East Aurora, NY 14052, January 8, 2024; 252 pages.  See Chapter Ten, the 101-page Inventory of “The Community-Based Portable Emergency Room, The PORTABLE ER”

6. Medical/Surgical Basic Kit G Inventory to get you started for your first Physician House Call immediately with your own medical/surgical basic supplies

7. Information Updated Letters:

   1. “Common Procedure Codes (CPTs) and Medical Insurances on Surgical and Medical Physician House Calls”. 

   2. “Coding by Procedures (CPTs).  Suggested CPTs (Highlighted in Yellow) For Physician House Calls Depending on Training and Clinical Experience” in an easy-to-modify, 43-page Spread Sheet in Microsoft Word easily updated by you with your own current Fee Schedule and any CPT and current Modifier changes, by thumb drive.

   3.  “Insurance Reimbursement for Medical and Surgical Physician House Calls: Coders & Biller, Choose Wisely”

   4.  “Billing Extra Time, HCPCS Code G0318 On Physician House Calls”

   5. “FOUR SEMINARS.  Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls, In-Service & Take-Home Seminars.  Advanced Skills Training Seminars, Two Follow-up In-Service Seminars. Revision Date: April 7, 2024, Updated with COVID-19” to be shared with other interested providers.

 

Hands-on Advanced Skills Training Seminars, Two Parts

 

Since COVID-19, I resumed my local hands-on, in-office/at-home Seminar, “Practicing Medicine by Physician House Calls”.  Likewise, for those that have taken our Take-Home Version, I resumed teaching the very well-received, hands-on, follow-up Advanced Skills Training Seminars in two parts, each lasting about two-hours.  I am planning to make these two Advanced Skills Training Seminars into Training Videos.

 

Advanced Skills Training Seminars, Part One: Hands-on Skills Training (two-hours) includes the following:

1. Phlebotomy setting up all bedside supplies and methods;

2. Bedside Blood Testing using our BMP, CMP disks and actual blood in our portable Point of Care (POC) Abaxis Piccolo Xpress Blood Chemistry Laboratory, or learning how to drop off patient’s vacutainers to local Labs;

3. Intravenous/Intraosseous (IV/IO) Fluid Therapy teaching Tricks-of-the-Trade;

4. Rapid Diagnostic Testing (RDTs) using our nine (expired) common RDT's;

5. Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) and CLIA-Waived Tests.  Upon passing training, you’ll receive your Letter of Proficiency;

6. How to Apply to New York State (NYS) Department of Health (DOH) for Limited-Service Laboratory Registration and Certificate of Qualification to be authorized to run your own POC Laboratory or conduct bedside RDTs;

7. Using the Hand-Carried Advanced Surgical & Medical Wound Care Kit (H5).  You will use the full printed inventory and learn how to build your own Kit

H5 for pressure injuries (‘bed-sores’), lacerations, and burns with surgical advanced wound care (AWC) methods, charting, coding and billing. 

1. Advanced Wound Care.  You will review wound photographs, comprehensive documentation and CMS-required charting, coding and billing using an actual patient’s chart (with permission) with name, address, member I.D., etc. redacted.  Our hand-carried surgical advanced wound care Kit H5 method is demonstrated hands-on with a full written inventory is given and discussed.

 

Advanced Skills Training Seminars, Part Two: Administration Training (two-hours) includes the following (See Outline, attached):

1. Actual Charting of a Typical Patient.  Includes common procedures done.

2. Quality Assurance (QA) CMS Audit Tool.  Checking off all your work actually done (history, physical exam and other categories) to honestly determine the appropriate, justifiable Physician House Call procedure code using the Common Procedural Terminology Code (CPT Code) with the current insurance fees.

3. Coding Books for All Procedures (CPTs) and Diagnoses (ICD-10). Using the Optum CPT and ICD-10 two spiral-bound coding books, which are excellent (very intuitive, easy-to-use and most helpful.

4. Populating and Printing off an Actual CMS-1500 Pink Medical Insurance Claim Form. Hands-on practice using the templated, computerized system (~$99) downloaded on our computer, populating & printing-off actual CMS-1500 pink medical insurance claim form (CMS-1500 Form) for a typical advanced wound care patient for an insurance reimbursement check to be mailed or to bank. 

5. Health Insurances:  Key contacts and phone numbers are provided.  How to transfer or get new insurance credentials, get fee schedules and PaySpan Health.

6. Western New York HealtheLink, HealtheCommunity Portal and WNYHealtheNet:  On-line to check patient eligibility and when you’ll be paid.

7. National Provider Identifier (NPI): How to get your NPI & Tax I.D. #’s.

8. Contracting with a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO): Reduced prices.

9. National Distributor:   On-line GPO ordering with next-day delivery to you.

10. e-Prescribing Waiver (NYS Health Commerce System-HCS): Forms needed.

 

Cost, Advanced Skills Training Seminars, Part One and Part Two

 

The Advanced Skills Training Seminars, Part One and Part Two (each two-hours) suggested tax-deductible donation to the Public Charity, “Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc.” is $200.00 for either Part One or Part Two, per each physician, NP, PA, or other staff members.  Please see www.PhysicianHouseCalls.org, Tab, “Seminars and Publications”.

 

Included in these Advanced Skills Training Seminars Part One and Part Two are phlebotomy, IV/IO and POC Lab and RDT supplies with Personal Protective Equipment-PPE (gloves, goggles, masks, COVID-19/Next Pandemic methods), the seven-page highly-referenced Advanced Skills Training Notes, four-page highly-referenced Health Insurance Information Sheets, six-page Surgical Kit H5 Inventory, plus many practical handouts.  These Advanced Skills Training Seminars, Part One or Part Two, are each tax-deductible donations of $200.00 per each physician, NP, PA, or other staff members.  Please check at www.PhysicianHouseCalls.org, Tab, “Seminars and Publications.”

 

All tax-deductible donations can be mailed (check/money order), but everybody is using our website’s Donate Buttons (Credit or Debit Cards, or PayPal, but PayPal keeps 2.2%) at www.PhysicianHouseCalls.org, found under three Tabs, “Home Page”, “Contact Us”, and “Seminars and Publications”. We will gratefully Email or U.S. Mail your tax-deductible donation receipt with our Thank You Note for your taxes. 

 

Please know that 100% of all donations and all medical insurance money go to our Public Charity mission, “caring for those in greater need”, and not any salary for anybody or me.

 

I look forward to speaking with you and helping any way I can.  My office is 655-6854, (9:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M., Monday – Friday) and my cell is (716) 998-7474.

 

Sincerely,

John A. Sterba, M.D., Ph.D., FACEP, FACCWS

John A. Sterba, M.D., Ph.D., FACEP, FACCWS

President & CEO; Medical & Scientific Director; NYS DOH Clinical Laboratory Director,

             Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc.  Emergency Physician House Calls™ using the PORTABLE ER®

 

 

Credentials:

Board-Certifications: American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM), American Board of Wound Medicine and Surgery

Fellow, American College of Emergency Physicians (FACEP); Fellow, American College of Clinical Wound

Specialists (FACCWS)

Member, American College of Emergency Physicians, American College of Clinical Wound Specialists,

               American Academy of Family Physicians

Research Assistant Professor, Kaleida/ John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital of Buffalo

Senior Teaching Fellow in Emergency Medicine and Paediatrics (Equivalent to Clinical Assistant Professor in the USA), College of Medicine & Allied Health Sciences, University of Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa

 

Encl.

References

1. Sterba, JA. Wound Care on the Go. ‘Portable ER’ Allows Physician to Reinvent House Calls.  Today’s Wound Clinic. 2012, September: 18-21.

2. Sterba, JA.  Emergency Physician House Calls™: Time, Outcome Benefits and Cost of Point of Care (POC) Laboratories Used with Community-based PORTABLE ER®.  White Paper: Original Research.  Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc., 226 Center Rd., East Aurora, NY 14052, December 11, 2017; 23 pages.

See www.PhysicianHouseCalls.org, Tab, Publications & Seminars.

1. Sterba, JA and JE Sterba. Test and Evaluation of Two-Way UHF Business Radios during Emergency Physician House Calls™ Transporting the PORTABLE ER® in a Hilly, Rural Environment. www.PhysicianHouseCalls.org, Tab, Publications & Seminars.

Sterba, JA and JE Sterba.  Textbook of Equipping for Disasters, Sheltering at Home.  Revised & Expanded, Sixth Edition.  Chapter Ten, “The Community-Based PORTABLE ER”, pp. 139-240.  Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc., 226 Center Rd., East Aurora, NY 14052

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SEMINAR

Practicing Basic Wound Care for Nurses and Providers

Revision Date: April 11, 2024

Hello,

 

Since 2009, I have been credentialled and reimbursed by all insurances to conveniently provide Physician Advanced Medical and Surgical Wound Care, at-home, in the WNY Southtowns into Wyoming County, NY. 

 

Our Emergency Physician House Calls™ using the PORTABLE ER® has kept nine-out-of-ten (91%) of Physician Advanced Wound Care patients safely at-home without any adverse events or complications, not needing to go to the hospital, the ER, or wound care center, all done at only 25% of the patient-care, insurance-cost of the hospital ER. (1.) 

 

Physician Advanced Wound Care included my evaluation and medical treatment of Stage 1 Pressure Injuries (early ‘bedsores’), selective and non-selective surgical debridement and closure of Stage 2, 3, and 4 Pressure Injuries/Ulcers (‘bedsores’) and arterial and venous insufficiency leg ulcers, lymphedema, plus laceration repair and burn care. 

 

In 2011, I became the first physician in the U.S. (with all physicians and mid-level providers) to be authorized insurance reimbursement to do these surgical and medical Integumentary System CPT procedures for Physician Advanced Wound Care.  This was based on National Government Services (NGS) Corporate Medical Directors favorably reviewing my patients’ wound care charts with data from our Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved medical research study (attached): (1.)

 

1. Sterba, JA. Wound Care on the Go. ‘Portable ER’ Allows Physician to Reinvent House Calls.  Today’s Wound Clinic. 2012, September: 18-21.

 

On over 6,500 local Emergency Physician House Calls™ using the PORTABLE ER® in the WNY Southtowns out into Wyoming County, I have enjoyed freely offering bedside teaching to visiting nurses, wound care nurses, nursing assistants, and family members for patients under my care, at-home.

 

Therefore, to best support WNY nurses, wound care nurses, and providers, I have provided my one-hour, hands-on Skills Training Seminar, Practicing Basic Wound Care for Nurses and Providers.  Your Syllabus for Practicing Basic Wound Care for Nurses and Providers includes:

1. Setting up the Basic Wound Care bedside tray of all common medical wound care supplies with safety measures and Infection Control,

2. Demonstrating Basic Wound Care techniques, safety, complications, and preparing intact skin to apply wound care dressings to stay in-place long-term,

3. Documentation of Basic Wound Care provided by nurses/providers using a provided copy of our 2024 Copyrighted Advanced Wound Care Addendum from our Emergency Physician House Calls™ using the PORTABLE ER®.

4. How to properly administer and code for “Non-selective, High-Pressure Irrigation Debridement” of adherent and non-adherent slough and biofilm (CPT 99597),

5. Reviewing the 101-page medical and surgical Inventory found in the required textbook:

   1. Sterba, JA and JE Sterba.  “The Textbook of Equipping for Disasters, Sheltering at Home” Revised & Expanded, Sixth Edition © 2024 (with COVID-19).  Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc., 226 Center Rd., East Aurora, NY 14052, January 5, 2024; 252 pages.  See Chapter Ten, the 101-page Inventory of “The Community-Based Portable Emergency Room, The PORTABLE ER”, (2.)

6. Follow-up Questions and Answers (Q&A).

 

Cost, Practicing Basic Wound Care for Nurses and Providers

 

The suggested tax-deductible donation to the Public Charity, “Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc.” is $260.00.  This covers one required “Textbook of Equipping for Disasters, Sheltering at Home” Revised & Expanded, Sixth Edition © 2024 2., my time for a one-hour hands-on, skills training Seminar, and all copyrighted Physician Advanced Wound Care handouts.

 

Please know that 100% of all donations and all medical insurance money go to our Public Charity mission, “caring for those in greater need” ™, and not for any salary.  I look forward to speaking with you and helping any way I can.  My office is 655-6854, (9:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M., Monday – Friday) and my cell is (716) 998-7474.

 

Sincerely,

John A. Sterba, M.D., Ph.D., FACEP, FACCWS

John A. Sterba, M.D., Ph.D., FACEP, FACCWS

President & CEO; Medical & Scientific Director; NYS DOH Clinical Laboratory Director,

             Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc.  Emergency Physician House Calls™ using the PORTABLE ER®

Board-Certifications: American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM), American Board of Wound Medicine

and Surgery (ABWMS)

Fellow, American College of Emergency Physicians (FACEP); Fellow, American College Clinical Wound

Specialists (FACCWS)

Member, American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), American College of Clinical Wound Specialists

 (ACCWS), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)

Commander, Medical Corps, U.S. Navy-Reserves (Hon Disch), Undersea & Arctic Warfare, Operational Medicine

Encl.

References

1. Sterba, JA. Wound Care on the Go. ‘Portable ER’ Allows Physician to Reinvent House Calls.  Today’s Wound Clinic. 2012, September: 18-21.

2. Sterba, JA and JE Sterba.  Textbook of Equipping for Disasters, Sheltering at Home.  Revised & Expanded, Sixth Edition.  Chapter Ten, “The Community-Based PORTABLE ER”, pp. 139-240.  Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc., 226 Center Rd., East Aurora, NY 14052, January 8, 2024; 252 pages.

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Hands-On Skills Training SEMINAR

Arctic Weather Training for WNY First Responders and Officers

 

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​In 2022, the Blizzard in Buffalo at Christmas time claimed 47 lives.  As widely reported, Buffalo Fire-Rescue, EMS and Police were not adequately trained or equipped to emergently and timely respond.  Many people died including those frozen to death outdoors in WNY Arctic Weather.

 

In Arctic Weather, it is Mission Critical for U.S. Military Arctic Warfare Combatants and Support Personnel to first learn and then train outdoors how to stay warm and dry to safely work hard and fight outside for long-duration with little support.  This was my tasking as former LCDR John A. Sterba, Medical Corps, U.S. Naval Reserves. (CDR, MC, USNR, Hon. Dis.), Undersea & Arctic Warfare Operational Medicine. I trained a U.S. Navy special operations Combat Battalion engineering team in Arctic Cold Weather Operations and Cold Weather Medicine before urgently deploying to Greenland and onto the High-Arctic Ice Pack of the North Pole Region. 

 

Arctic Weather outdoor military training in the cold is likewise done yearly for civilian First Responders and Officers in Northern European countries.

 

Since 1998, I have served in WNY as ‘Dr. John’ (John A. Sterba, M.D., Ph.D., FACEP, FACCWS, Emergency Medicine, Advanced Medical & Surgical Wound Care).  I am the founding President & CEO, Medical and Scientific Director, and Missionary with Saved by Grace Ministry, Inc., a humanitarian medical and research corporation in East Aurora, NY.    

 

Past and Present Blizzards in WNY

 

I have emergently cared for many stranded patients during the Buffalo Blizzard of 77 (EMT), Buffalo Blizzard Disaster of November 20-21, 2000 (emergency physician), and Christmas Buffalo Blizzard of 2022 (Emergency Physician House Calls™ using the PORTABLE ER®, www.PhysicianHouseCalls.org).

 

The severe Winter Arctic Weather warnings of this year’s 2025-2026 La Niňa pattern for Northeastern USA is confirmed scientifically. 

 

The unstable wobble of the Arctic Air Mass over the North Pole will again aim the Jet Stream of Arctic Cold Air (Polar Vortex) right over WNY’s exceptionally warm Eastern Lake Erie.  Plus, all five Great Lakes are reported to be many degrees Fahrenheit warmer than usual. (TheWeatherNetwork.com)

 

WNY First Responders must work outdoors during blizzards that can shut down the I-90, State Roads, and neighborhoods for many days.  Blizzards may again result in a tragic loss of life. 

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Therefore, WNY First Responder and Officers must urgently become trained hands-on, first indoors and then outdoors like my U.S. Navy special operations team that deployed to the North Pole Region. 

 

I offer to provide WNY First Responders and Officers my fast-paced one-hour classroom with hands-on training of all supplies plus my PowerPoint Presentation.  Thereafter, there is a mandatory outdoor two-hour field training exercise in the cold. 

 

WNY First Responders and Officers practice how to safely work hard for long-hours outside away from warm vehicles or shelters.  We train for Arctic Weather Blizzards, medical and surgical emergencies, fatalities, terrorism, warfare, and civil unrest (“anarchy”). 

 

I provide my Chapter, “Arctic Cold Weather Medicine and Accidental Hypothermia” from the U.S. Navy’s Arctic Operations Manual with my updated Recommended Arctic Weather Clothing & Supplies List.

 

If interested in Arctic Weather Training for WNY First Responders and Officers, please call me, ‘Dr. John,’ (716) 655-6854 or email me, PhysicianHouseCalls@roadrunner.com

 

God Bless us all.