Lusby author's book helps emergency crews with problem solving

David Hupp is preparing for the launch of his self-published book “V.I.P.E.R. Improvement Fire/EMS Department Leadership and Management” on July 1.

The lifelong resident of Southern Maryland grew up in Charles County, attended the College of Southern Maryland, worked at the University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center in La Plata for 10 years, and now volunteers at the Solomons Volunteer Rescue Squad and Fire Department as a firefighter/EMT and sits on its board of directors.

The Lusby resident is a quality improvement team leader at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

He and his wife Nancy have two children and “you can probably find us on the weekends either hiking Chestnut Land Trust or relaxing at Mully’s Brewery,” according to Hupp.

The book is available at Amazon.

For more information, go to viper-fire-ems.com.

How long have you been writing?

I have been writing since last summer, when I wrote an article for Firehouse Magazine titled “Get S.M.A.R.T. — Goal Setting for the Fire Service.” Shortly after, I continued writing and found I was able to merge my quality improvement experience in healthcare, my doctoral business education, and my volunteer work in the fire and EMS service to create an innovative improvement model to help fire and EMS departments in problem-solving, decision-making, leadership, and management. My love for writing really began as I composed my dissertation “Process Reliability and Its Effect on Improving Patient Satisfaction within an Inpatient Hospital Environment” in 2022.

What inspires you to write?

My inspiration for writing the book stems from a desire to pass along the information I have gained to others. Within the fire service, it is vitally important to teach and pass along the skills acquired to the next generation. In order to pursue this goal, I felt a duty to coalesce my experience and education into a format that can help others in the fire and EMS service.

What kind of writing process do you use?

I take a pragmatic and linear approach to writing, starting at the beginning and moving towards the conclusion. This approach is reflected in my book as the V.I.P.E.R. Improvement Model is essentially a flowchart of business tools that moves from strategic inception to completion.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

One of the authors who helped shape my thinking was David McRaney in “You Are Not So Smart” and “You Are Now Less Dumb,” which dives into psychology and decision-making through investigation of cognitive biases and heuristics. Thinking about thinking sounds a tad ‘meta’, however it has really boosted my critical thinking skills. Also, “Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work” by Timothy Keller was instrumental, especially while pursing my doctorate, in understanding how doing excellent work connects to Christ. Lastly, both “Quality Control” and “Industrial Statistics” by Acheson Duncan and “The Nine Master Keys of Management” by Lester Bittel are classics that reading now I find relevant even today despite their age as a guide in statistics and management practices. It’s quite shocking and interesting to see the same issues and solutions proposed then being pertinent today.

Please include a brief description of your book

A main responsibility of fire/EMS department leadership is problem solving and fixing issues. However, the industry lacks a standard framework and tools to address problems in a systematic way. This makes it difficult in identifying causes of problems, creating solutions that last, and managing risk. This book provides leadership solutions for fire and EMS department membership including operational officers, administrative officers, senior/lifetime members, rising/aspiring firefighters and EMT’s, and rookie members alike through the V.I.P.E.R. Improvement Model. The V.I.P.E.R. Improvement Model is a fire/EMS specific bundle that uses an organized set of business tools to uncover and solve issues that present themselves to departments.

Please include an excerpt from the book

While V.I.P.E.R. is an acronym of values that permeate throughout the model (Variance Inhibiting, Performance, Efficiency, and Reliability), this excerpt expresses the inspiration for using a viper as an icon:

“The viper is an ambush predator that conserves its energy in camouflage until it’s ready to strike. Then it unleashes all its power to attack, or defend itself. In a similar way, fire and EMS departments are the viper. They wait at the station until the tones drop. When they do, crews launch into action just like a striking viper, with precision and accuracy, unleashing all the experience, training, knowledge, and skills acquired to get a knock on the fire, extricate the victim, deescalate the hazmat situation, or provide emergency services to a patient.”