Reprinted from the Health District's quarterly publication mailed to district residents (Summer 2006)
TOPIC: Help is on the way
Coordinated response ensures patients get best care fast
 
by kathy hayes

When a driver hit a tree head-on, Poudre Valley Hospital paramedics and Poudre Fire Authority emergency medical technicians (EMTs) raced to the scene. While the team extricated the man from the car, a paramedic alerted the hospital to the patient’s condition, activating the trauma team. Paramedics kept the man alive and by the time the patient arrived at the hospital, the operating room was prepared and a team of doctors and nurses was ready to go to work.

Situations like these illustrate the close coordination and cooperation among local emergency response teams. They are part of a system that includes, in addition to hospital trauma teams, paramedics from PVH and so-called “first responders,” emergency medical technicians from Poudre Fire Authority or – in rural mountain communities like Red Feather Lakes – quick response teams fielded by local fire districts.

Thankfully, only 5 percent of local 911 calls involve life-and-death emergencies. The majority of the approximately 30 Emergency Medical Services (EMS) calls received each day are for minor traumas, patient transfers, alcohol intoxication, and chest pain.

Regardless of the severity of the situation (or ability to pay), every patient receives the same rapid response and quality care from the local emergency medical response system. 

  

quick facts
Poudre Valley Hospital Ambulance Services
 Ambulance services, owned by Poudre Valley Hospital since 1975,  are funded by the hospital and patient fees.

 Responses in 2005: 10,982
Average fee per transport: $800 (lowest cost non-volunteer service in the 9-county region)
Facilities: 11ambulances carrying advanced life-saving equipment; three stations; two supervisor’s vehicles carrying equipment for hazardous materials, weapons of mass destruction, and mass casualties 
Staff: 128 full-time, part-time, relief and volunteer paramedics and EMTs
Service area: 2,200 square miles
 
Poudre Fire Authority Emergency Response Services
 The fire department receives public funding and, therefore, does not charge for its services.

Responses in 2005: Approximately 7,500
Facilities: 12 fire engines and two fire trucks carrying fire-fighting and basic life support equipment, including automated defibrillators; equipment for extrication, weapons of mass destruction response and mass casualties; 12 fire stations, a training facility, and an administration/fire prevention bureau office
Staff: 140 EMTs; average of 30 volunteer EMTs
Service area: 235 square miles

Emergency help begins with a specially trained dispatcher who asks a 911 caller a series of questions, explains Lyle Huff, operations manager of ambulance services. “Based on the caller’s answers, the dispatcher will send the closest ambulance and fire truck.”

The dispatcher also coaches the caller into caring for a patient, giving medical advice, such as how to control bleeding or open an airway, advising on safety issues, and providing comfort until the EMS team arrives.

Within one minute of being called, emergency vehicles, paramedics, and EMTs are en route to the scene. PVH’s paramedics are trained and equipped to perform advanced life-saving services, such as inserting a breathing tube and administering drugs. The firefighters/EMTs are trained to provide basic life support and address safety concerns, such as hazardous materials and removing people from dangerous environments. 

“We’re definitely a family, a brotherhood,” says PVH paramedic Lisa Beard.

All EMS personnel follow standardized protocols, notes Mary Makris, EMS coordinator for the fire department. This ensures that team members speak the same language, follow the same procedures, and have a command structure that will respond to the changing demands of each scene.

With the impending opening of Medical Center of the Rockies, an advisory group that includes Dr. Dan Turner, medical director of PVH Emergency Medical Services, and Chief John Mulligan of Poudre Fire Authority, is determining how to better coordinate on-scene medical services. To date, improvements include installing traffic-light-triggering systems in all PVH ambulances and using global positioning and advanced mapping technology to direct emergency vehicles along the most expedient, obstacle-free routes.

“We’re looking at what strategies we can use that will impact the system the least while still providing good patient care,” Mulligan says.