EMS NEWS
& CURRENT EVENTS
June 30, 2008:
Fuel
Meeting Minutes
June 20, 2008:
Draft
Meeting Minutes from the June 5, 2008 Regional Council Meeting
May 30, 2008:
Draft
Meeting Minutes from the May 28, 2008 Regional MAC Meeting
May 12, 2008:
Draft Meeting Minutes
from the Special Meeting of May 7,2008
May 5, 2008:
Meeting
Minutes from the April 3, 2008 Regional Council Meeting
April 4, 2008:
The Audit Report for the Council for the contract year
2006-2007 has been completed. Copies will be provided upon request.
To request a copy, please call the Council office
March 3, 2008:
Meeting Minutes
from the February 27, 2008 MAC Meeting (approved May 28, 2008)
November 21, 2007:
Meeting Minutes from the November 13, 2007 Regional MAC Meeting
October 4, 2007:
Meeting Minutes from the October 4, 2007 Regional Council Meeting
August 23, 2007:
Meeting minutes
from the August 2, 2007 Regional Council meeting
Meeting
minutes from the August 6, 2007 Regional MAC meeting
August 23, 2007
Meeting minutes
from the June 7, 2007 Regional Council meeting are now available for review.
July 26, 2007:
Pictures from Seven
Mountains evening with the Spikes
June 15, 2007:
Meeting minutes
from the April 5, 2007 Regional Council meeting are now available for review.
April 20,2007:
S. Scott Rhoat,
EMS Program Specialist for Seven Mountains EMS Council for the past fourteen
years has resigned from Council employment. The delegates, board and
staff wish him the best as he starts down this new path in his EMS
career.
October 25, 2006:
Meeting minutes from the October 5, 2006 Regional Council meeting are now
available for review.
August 24, 2006:
Meeting
minutes from the August 3, 2006 Regional Council meeting are now available
for review.
August 18, 2006:
Seven Mountains EMS Council is pleased to announce that
Regional Medical Director Dr. Kasandra Botti, DO has been named the 2006
Pennsylvania Emergency Physician of the Year by the Pennsylvania
Emergency Health Services Council (PEHSC) at their annual conference banquet
on August 9, 2006 in State College. As pictured
presenting the award are Deputy Secretary of Health Michelle Davis, Dr.
Botti, and Bureau of EMS Director Joe Schmider.
July 3, 2006:
An EMS Strike Team from the Seven
Mountains EMS Council region was deployed on June 28-29, 2006 to the
Wilkes-Barre area of Luzerne County Pennsylvania to assist local EMS
providers. Most of eastern Pennsylvania was experiencing widespread
flooding and even though protected by a dike the city of Wilkes-Barre had
issued a mandatory evacuation as the expected crest of water on the river was
projected to possibly overwhelm the dike system. Our regional team of 5
ambulances, along with a 5 unit team from the LTS region, assisted at shelters
with patient evaluations and treatment, with movement of residents from
shelters back to their skilled nursing facility and transfer of acute care
patients back to a previously evacuated hospital. The EMS organizations
from our region that deployed units with four (4) crewmembers each were:
Central Juniata EMS, Mifflintown, Juniata County; Lock Haven EMS, Lock Haven,
Clinton County; Snow Shoe Ambulance, Snow Shoe, Centre County; Bellefonte EMS,
Bellefonte, Centre County; and Centre LifeLink EMS, State College, Centre
County. In addition, Council deployed one support unit and staff member
to function as the strike team leader, liaison, and assist in the county EOC.
This is the second deployment for the Seven Mountains EMS Council EMS Strike
Team within the past 9 months. The initial mission was a 9-day
deployment to assist in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath in New Orleans,
Louisiana in September 2005.
June 21, 2006:
Meeting minutes
(approved at August 3, 2006 meeting) from the
June 1, 2006 Regional Council meeting are now available for review.
May 17, 2006:
Meeting minutes
(approved at June 1, 2006 meeting) from
the April 6, 2006 Regional Council meeting are now available for review.
April 20, 2006:
Seven Mountains EMS Council in
cooperation with Centre County Ambulance Association are sponsoring and
hosting a 1st Annual EMS Encampment Weekend
during EMS Week on May 19, 20, 21, 2006 at Fort Bellefonte Campground near
Bellefonte. All regional EMS providers, career and volunteer, are
invited and encouraged to attend to relax and enjoy the weekend. An
announcement & invitation has been sent to each regional EMS organization
recently providing further details. Even if you are not one who camps,
please consider attending any or all of the daily events, especially the free
picnic Saturday afternoon with guest speaker Joe Schmider, Director of PaDOH
Bureau of EMS. To assist us in planning for the picnic, please contact
our Council office either by phone, email or returning the attached RSVP as
soon as possible.
April 10, 2006:
Philipsburg Area Hospital, Centre
County, announced today they will be permanently closing their facility on
Wednesday evening April 12, 2006 at midnight. As of the time of
announcement they are no longer accepting admissions to the hospital but the
emergency department should remain staffed until Wednesday's closing.
EMS agencies are advised to consider transporting patients to other
surrounding emergency departments.
January 20, 2006:
"EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
ELEVATED TO BUREAU STATUS AT DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH"
Press Release.
January 20, 2006:
Meeting minutes
(approved at April 6, 2006 meeting) from the
January 5, 2006 Regional Council meeting are now available for review.
January 15, 2006:
Effective this date, the new
PaDOH approved Regional ALS Treatment Protocols are to be used. This
concludes a 16 month process to update existing regional protocols that had
been previously utilized. Council wishes to thank the Regional Medical
Advisory Committee members, Dr. K. Botti, Regional Medical Director, Dr. D.
Kupas, State EMS Medical Director, and the PaDOH EMS Office for their efforts
to bring this lengthy project to fruition.
December 21, 2005:
Council is pleased to announce
that effective this date, all PaDOH-related EMS & Rescue certification
training programs will now be conducted in conjunction with Bucks
County Community College. Regional rescue programs have been conducted
through BCCC for many years, this just expands that partnership. After
reviewing existing arrangements Council believes that this change will prove
to be beneficial to all parties involved including students,
instructors and regional EMS organizations. Overall this change will
appear seamless to EMS providers and practitioners with the exception that
course tuitions will be dramatically reduced in many instances. As an
example, the student cost for the basic EMT courses starting in January 2006
will be reduced from $190 down to $115. This reduction is possible since
Bucks County Community College does not charge a tuition fee as did our
previous community college arrangement. Reduced training costs will
benefit the EMS system with recruitment of new members now that agencies and
personnel will be better able to afford basic certification-related education.
November 15, 2005:
The Pennsylvania Department of Health
EMS Office unveiled the new EMS Recruitment campaign today in an effort to
increase the number of young adults interested in EMS as either a volunteer or
as a career choice. The new "Roll
With It" campaign includes movie trailers shown in theaters statewide
today.
October 10, 2005:
Meeting minutes
(approved at 1/5/06 meeting) from the October 6,
2005 Regional Council meeting are now available.
September 12, 2005:
Two of our regional EMS Surge
Capacity services have just returned from New Orleans, Louisiana.
Moshannon Valley EMS, Philipsburg & Centre LifeLink EMS, State College each
sent four staff members and an ALS ambulance, along with 17 other ALS
ambulances from Pennsylvania to assist with recovery efforts after Hurricane
Katrina. Council assisted by sending two staff members that assisted as
support staff and command operations. Bellefonte EMS loaned the use of
their wheelchair van to Council as a support unit carrying supplies such as
food and water along with personal effects. These units left Pa. on
Saturday evening September 3 and returned late Sunday September 11.
These units were based at the Louis Armstrong Airport and transported
evacuated patients to hospitals in the New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette
areas.
August 25, 2005:
Meeting minutes from the August
4, 2005 Regional Council meeting are now available. Minutes were
approved at the October 10, 2005 meeting.
October
14, 2004:
At the October meeting, Seven
Mountains EMS Council recognized Dr. Theodore Ziff, who has stepped down, for fourteen years of
dedicated service to the Council and the Emergency Medical Service (EMS)
organizations within the region.
July
29, 2004:
As a reminder to all EMS
organizations and PaDOH certified practitioners, please keep track of
expiration dates of your First Responder or EMT certifications.
There is no 'grace period' permitting one to still function while awaiting
recertification. If you have not received your re-certification
documents by the date of expiration, your certification may have
lapsed. Do not assume that they are in the mail, please contact your
Regional EMS Council to verify certification status. EMS
organizations are also reminded that they are responsible to verify that
their staff, paid or volunteer, possess valid certifications to meet
identified staffing requirements. Permitting non-certified personnel
to staff your QRS or ambulance will jeopardize the service's PaDOH
Ambulance License or QRS Recognition and also increase liability risks for
the individual practitioner, management and the organization.
July
28, 2004:
Council met with the eight
Regional ambulance services that have agreed to participate in the PaDOH
EMS Surge Capacity program by committing a total of nine ambulances.
Participating organizations include Lock Haven EMS and Bucktail Medical
Center MSTU from Clinton County; Central Juniata EMS and Port Royal EMS
from Juniata County; along with Moshannon Valley EMS, Snow Shoe Ambulance,
Alpha Ambulance and Bellefonte EMS from Centre County.
Representatives were presented with their checks
at the meeting. All services received $5000 except Alpha
Ambulance which received $10,000 since they were committing two ambulances
instead of just one. This money will be used by the organizations to
help offset the cost of necessary training and equipment
purchases.
May
18, 2004:
The FAST and Bucktail Medical Center Ambulance Services in Renovo have
been chosen by the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health to participate in
the state’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Community Planning Project.
Seven Mountains EMS Council is assisting in the coordination of
this project. EMS agencies need to function as a member of their
community. When people call
for medical help, they expect a rapid response, competent staff, and good
equipment. Often the
Hollywood version of what we see becomes what we expect.
The purpose of this project is to provide EMS with a clear
understanding of their customers; the needs of those customers and how to
cost effectively meet those needs. FAST and Bucktail Medical Center
Ambulance Services will be conducting a variety of surveys that will
include input from the media, school systems, law enforcement agencies,
fire departments, medical facilities, and most importantly the public.
November
6, 2003:
Effective this date, Centre Community Hospital in State College has
officially changed their name to the Mount Nittany Medical Center.
Their address, Receiving & Medical Command Facility ID numbers, and
ALS service affiliate numbers remain unchanged.
October
20, 2003:
The
Centre County Ambulance Association's Honor Guard took delivery of their
basic
uniforms at their meeting this evening. The rest of the meeting
was spent training on proper funeral
protocol. If the need should arise, the Honor Guard is now
operational. The primary intent of the Honor Guard is to honor
deceased EMS personnel that may have died in the line of duty in Centre
County. In addition, they also intend to honor non-line of duty
deaths of active or retired members of EMS, fire or police agencies in
Central Pennsylvania. This group is open to any Centre County EMS
provider. For further information or notify of a death,
contact
S. Rhoat at the Council office.
October
3, 2003:
Since we have redesigned our website, several providers have called asking
where they can now find a listing of scheduled continuing education
classes. Council no longer lists regional con-ed sessions on our
site but this information, and more, can be found by accessing the
PaDOH
Con-Ed System website. A link to this is also located on our
main
page.
August 13, 2003:
The
PaDOH EMS Office released Information Bulletin #2 outlining the process
for Epinephrine Auto-Injector Administration by EMT's. This is a
modification in that BLS ambulance and QRS may carry Epinephrine
Auto-Injectors instead of relying on a patient having an auto-injector
available. Interested organizations should read the bulletin and
then contact their Regional Council office.