5/15/14 Honoring Holmes County's first responders

  • By Nick Sabo
  • May 15, 2014
  • 390
                        
SUMMARY: National EMS week is May 18 - 24 A few minutes before the squad pulls up to the emergency department entrance, emergency medical service personnel call in an evaluation of their patient. As soon as the call is received, the emergency department (ED) staff at Pomerene Hospital begins to prepare a course of action. By that time, the EMS personnel have been following their own plan of action, stabilizing and treating the patient as best as they are able. The outcome is not always predictable. Sometimes the patient can be treated at the ED and released; sometimes they must be transported to other care centers. Sometimes seconds are the difference between life and death. Whatever happens, the hospital faculty know that local EMS squads have always done their best, Bill Reisinger, DO, Pomerene emergency department director, said “A lot of times, it is a thankless job. Sometimes you’re taking care of critical patients, and sometimes the outcomes are not so positive,” Reisinger said. “We are in the ED and it is a well lit, controlled environment. They are out working under all conditions, and yet they always do their best. They often go beyond the call of duty.” Pomerene expresses their appreciation for local EMS personnel with an annual meeting during EMS appreciation week (observed this year May 18 - 24). This year, the meeting will feature a presentation by Metro Lifeflight that counts toward required EMS continuing education credits. The light meal that follows is a good time for hospital staff EMS personnel across the county to engage in a little fellowship as well. East Holmes EMS assistant chief Mary Hershberger said Pomerene and emergency service providers have a good working relationship that is officially noted during EMS appreciation week. For example, when EMS phone in their evaluation of a patient en route, they do not receive a skeptical or critical response. That EMS personnel will tell all they know and see without fear of criticism is, in turn, good for the patient. “We get as much information as we can from the patient, or, if the patient can not communicate, their family, if possible,” Hershberger said. “We tell (the ED) everything we have so they can prepare. That is very important to us. We have such a short time with the patients. When we’re not sure, we say we’re not sure.” Reisinger and Hershberger both feel that there is a sense of community between the hospital and local EMS, born out of the culture of Holmes County as a whole. EMS personnel sometimes respond to a serious accident that turns fatal. They are the last person to see someone’s loved one alive. Sometimes, the family of the deceased will want to make a contact with those last few moments - a request that is often granted, even though “it is beyond what we normally do”, Hershberger said. Last year, the mother of a teen who died in an accident asked to meet with the EMS squad that treated her daughter, Hershberger said. They talked for over an hour, and the mother asked if they had the daughter’s cell phone. Hershberger said personnel searched the area of the accident until they found it. EMS’s primary contact with the patient sometimes continues into the ED, Pomerene director of emergency services Fran Lauriha, RN, said. If the ED is busy, EMS personnel sometimes stick around to act as another pair of hands or two. “It isn’t something we ask them to do, they just do it,” Lauriha said. “They assist with CPR - obviously, people get tired and need someone to take over. They will stay in the room with a newly arrived patient until we can get to them.” The capability of EMS personnel to respond starts long before a 9-1-1 call comes in. All but one department in Holmes County are staffed entirely by volunteers, members of their community who undergo at least 40 hours of continuing education every year. Community support of levies and fundraisers pay for continued operations and purchase new equipment. Without such support, EMS would not exist in rural communities, Hershberger said. To find out more about national EMS day, visit www.emsweekideas.org/celebrateEMSweek KUTLINE: Nick Sabo photo Pomerene Hospital asks the county to remember the value of local EMS services with National EMS appreciation week, May 18 - 24. Pictured above are Pomerene Emergency Department Dr. Stan Boyd, registered nurse Candy Yoder (second from left) and East Holmes assistant EMS chief Mary Hershberger.


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