Paul Satterlee MD, FACEM is a graduate of The University of South Dakota School of Medicine.He trained in Emergency Medicine at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, MN becoming board certified in EM in 2001. He obtained his Emergency Medical Services subspecialty certification in 2017.
Dr. Satterlee spent the first part of his EM/EMS career in Minneapolis and St. Paul working with multiple different EMS agencies. His first position was with a large healthcare-based EMS system that provided ground and air services to urban, suburban and rural parts of Minnesota.
During that experience, his focus was scene response and national disaster medical response as well has provider education. He was the medical director for the Century College Paramedic education program and supported them through multiple accreditation visits while the program was a local leader in paramedic training.
Later, he became more involved in the state and local regulatory bodies that guide EMS in the communities with which he worked. This included participation in national state medical director meetings, state EMS data management and acquisition as well as work with the states complain review committee for EMS providers.
This led to a change in focus from on scene care to quality assurance, best practice implementation and provider instruction. He worked with a large healthcare-based EMS service as they implemented programs in community paramedicine, critical care transport and neonatal transport. He provided much of the education and interacted with the healthcare systems to support the role of the various programs throughout the region.
Throughout his time in Minnesota, Dr. Satterlee worked with a variety of EMS services. This included healthcare-based EMS with interfacility transfers as well as 911 response. It included fire department-based EMS that provided care in rural areas as well as the department that provided care in the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. This provided an opportunity to experience multiple ways to provide care in various out of hospital settings. It allowed him to develop a breadth of knowledge and experience in various versions of EMS care. This experience allows him to anticipate challenges and obstacles to providing optimal prehospital care.
Dr. Satterlee also has extensive experience with EMS dispatch. He was part of an organization that had its own secondary PSAP providing prearrival instructions for multiple ems agencies. He worked with and taught dispatchers to better understand the nuances of providing prearrival instructions successfully while working with laypersons over the phone.
Dr. Satterlee has worked with hospital systems to establish and fine tune interfacility transport systems so that the interests of all parties can be aligned. This includes building a critical care transport program de novo in a large urban setting as well as providing education and guidance to the providers. He has also worked extensively within the hospital systems to build and monitor interfacility transport programs for newly developed free-standing emergency departments. These programs can require coordination, understanding and agreement between hospital systems, community-based EMS services and care providers who are part of the community. He has also been part of the development of a hospital ems based community paramedic program with emphasis on education of chronic disease monitoring and management.
After recently relocating to Western Washington, Dr. Satterlee continues to work with EMS and healthcare systems to ensure optimal prehospital care is provided based on quality assessment, progressive minded education and collaboration among the communities he works with.
