Montgomery County Ambulance Association Second Alarmers Rescue Squad 380 September 30 th, Hours

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1 2010 Officers Patrick A. Doyle Sr, President Kevin Bennett, Vice President Kenneth J. Schauder, Secretary James Smale, Treasurer Mailing: Post Office Box #5 - Bryn Athyn, PA Montgomery County Ambulance Association Second Alarmers Rescue Squad 380 September 30 th, Hours Squads present: 351, 355, 325, 329, PennStar Flight, 308, 380, 369, 345, 313, EMS and EDS. President (Patrick Doyle, Sr.): Welcomed everyone and thanked SARS for hosting. Meeting called to order at 1238 hours by President Patrick Doyle, Sr. The June, 2010 minutes were approved as circulated. Vice President (Kevin Bennet): Secretary (Kennth Schauder): Treasurer (James Smale): The following statements were opened by Chief Fitz Duffy and the balances were read: May, Statement. Balance: $3, June, Statement. Balance: $3, July Statement. Balance: $3, August Statement Balance - $ The Treasurer stated that these announced balances agree with his checking account register. Montgomery County Ambulance Association - Minutes of September 30 th, 2010 Page 1

Committee Reports: Medical Command Committee (Kevin Thomas / Chris Reif): Meeting was held September 16 th, 2010 at the Public Safety Training Institute: Paoli Hospital has announced that it will be

2 Committee Reports: Medical Command Committee (Kevin Thomas / Chris Reif): Meeting was held September 16 th, 2010 at the Public Safety Training Institute: Paoli Hospital has announced that it will be a Level 2 Trauma Center effective October 1 st, State MAC The new protocols have been delayed because the AHA changes will not be announced until 2011 at the earliest and it would not make sense to change the protocols now and then have to change them again when the new AHA guidelines are announced. There are over 120 proposed changes. ALL medical Command Doctors that give Medical Command in Montgomery County will be REQUIRED to take an online course so that they can give medical command. It will take about three to four hours to complete and will be needed to be completed ASAP or at the latest by their next Medical Command Reauthorization. There is a rumor of a dextrose and epinephrine shortages in the nation and it has not affected our area yet. Kevin will be keeping an eye on shortages and the Association has a back-up plan if the shortage becomes a reality. Kevin has looked through the proposed Act 37 and has made several recommendations to the state for consideration. Act 37 also has a section that will create a new Level FOUR for Trauma Centers. PESCH has established a committee named Emergency Services Rehabilitation. Additional information will follow when we find out their mission. There was an open seat on EMS Council. Dr. Steven Pulley of Montgomery Hospital has been recommended by MAC and will be affirmed at the next EMS Council Meeting and then forwarded to the County Commissioners for the official appointment. There was a state Town Hall Meeting held recently. Joe Schmider came and went over the new regulations. There will be NO changes to the Helicopter response zones for the next three years starting March 1 st, The next consideration will be in the Spring of There will be a continuing education seminar sponsored by Bucks and Montgomery County EMS Offices. It will be held at Abington Memorial Hospital on November 6 th, 2010 Plymouth has purchased a new bariatric ambulance to provide special care in transporting morbidly obese patients. Our next meeting will be held at Plymouth to see the new ambulance and to review their policies on usage. Montgomery County Ambulance Association - Minutes of September 30 th, 2010 Page 2

3 EMS Council (James Smale): Jim reiterated the helicopter zone extension for three years until March of 2013 and the Paoli Hospital announcement of their Trauma Center opening October 1 st, 2010 EMS Office (David Paul Brown): EMS Summit-October 15 th, 2010: Summit planning and details are taking shape. The Montgomery County EMS office and the Montgomery County Ambulance Administrator s are co-sponsoring an all day summit to discuss the future of EMS. Key speakers will include Skip Kirkwood, Wake County, NC and AJ Heightman, JEMS magazine, California and Dr. Doug Kupas along with County leaders will also be attending. Presentations, break out sessions and discussion-feedback will be conducted in the morning and afternoon. Note takers will assist in capturing all the great ideas of where we are as an EMS system and where we need to go. Please plan on joining us for this important day. So far about 75 people have signed up, and more are registering every day. We have invited EMS squad leaders, municipal officials, medical command physicians, EMS Council members, and others who have a vested interest in the viability of the EMS System. Your input is very valuable to make this day a huge success. The Montgomery County Ambulance Association has also been very helpful in providing resources to offer breaks and an excellent lunch. Vacant ED Physician Post on EMS Council: Four physicians had expressed an interest and submitted applications/resumes to be selected to fill this post. The MAC reviewed the applicants and made the recommendation to Council for Dr. Steven Pulley to fill the vacancy. The Council recommendation will be forwarded to the Commissioner s for official appointment to the Council for a three year term. The four physicians that applied for appointment were: Dr. Steven Fisher-Abington Hospital Dr. Steven Pulley - Montgomery Hospital - Recommended by MAC Dr. Sonia Chacko-Einstein Hospital Dr. David Neubert-Reading Hospital H1N1 After Action Reviews: H1N1 after action reviews were held at the Reading District Health office and at the Public Safety Training Campus. The after action review, service pin ceremony and luncheon were held on June 30 th and attended by MCEMS professional staff, practitioners and the County Health Department staff. Important points were raised about things that worked well, challenges we faced, and things that could be handled differently. A complete after action review document will be available shortly. Montgomery County Ambulance Association - Minutes of September 30 th, 2010 Page 3

4 EMSOF : The EMSOF-ambulance equipment grants will be announced shortly. MCEMS requested that Council appoint an EMSOF committee with 2-3 representatives of Council and the professional staff to establish selection criteria, review all applications and assist as necessary the completion of the grant process. That was accomplished at the meeting. Chempak Updates: Planning meetings continue to be held with the two Chempak sites in Montgomery County. MCEMS continues to work with the District Public Health Planner to ensure connectivity across County lines if the need were to arise to deploy the packs. Replacement MARK-1 Kits-DuoDotes: MCEMS is still awaiting word of approval to replace these kits. PEMA and FEMA have asked for clarification that the antidotes can be replaced or if the funds can only be used for new units. A recent memo from Homeland Security stated that sustainment costs were eligible, however PEMA and FEMA are still sorting out. Mobile Data Computers-Update: All of the MDC agreements are in place. EDS is making final arrangements for the install dates to be announced. Each ambulance is being evaluated to ensure that the proper mount and position of the MDC will be optimal. EDS staff has visited each station that has indicated they will have their installs done at the Second Alarmer s site. Within the next few weeks (see EDS Report under New Business), Immediately after installations, training courses will be available to ensure that all the users are able to navigate and use all the features of the computers to their best ability. The installations will continue at the Training Campus, and Pottstown-Goodwill. CO Meters: The CO meters have been issued to the EMS squads. Training was provided in early August at both the Training Campus and EOC for convenience. Funding was obtained by the Department of Public Safety- EMS through monies available from Homeland Security through the regional task force. Each licensed front line municipal response ambulance received a CO meter, bump test kit, and an aerosol can of CO gas. The meters are to be used daily to detect any dangerous levels of CO in the ambulance compartment or in any buildings or spaces that EMS responds. The meters are to be tested weekly using the CO gas and test kit and logged as to when and who tested them. Each meter has a lifespan of 24 months and electronically logs how long the meter has been working. We are planning now to seek funds to purchase new ones in 18 months, however funding is not guaranteed. EMS Director Brown Receives PEHSC Honor: David Paul Brown, Deputy Director Public Safety-EMS has been honored with the 2010 Joel E. Grottenthaler memorial Award. This annual award recognizes a Pennsylvania emergency services provider, past or present who through their involvement has demonstrated the traits of professionalism, competency, dedication, leadership, integrity, and loyalty, and who continually strives to improve the EMS system in order to provide a high quality of patient care to the citizens they serve. Director Brown received his award at the annual PEHSC meeting held in Harrisburg, PA in June of Montgomery County Ambulance Association - Minutes of September 30 th, 2010 Page 4

5 Photo ID Upgrades: MCEMS staff continues to upgrade certification cards and have conducted additional photo ID sessions since the last report. We now believe we have processed over 600 cards. As EMTs are recertified, MCEMS Training will process a new card with photo ID and signature. Please contact the EMS Training office with any questions Rural EMS Grant to Study Financial Viability of EMS Squads: Penn State University has been issued a grant to study the finances of EMS units, primarily in the rural setting, however, in order to obtain an accurate picture they are also studying the financial health of urban area responders. In May of 2010, sixteen Montgomery County based EMS units were mailed surveys to complete. Ed Martin and the MCEMS continue to work with the services to urge them to complete the survey. This study will establish the fiscal health of EMS agencies and be reported to the Commonwealth Department of Health as scrubbed data without mentioning or attaching any information specific to individual organizations. MCEMS has recently spoken with the survey director and she has indicated that only four of our sixteen have responded. Ambler, Green Lane, Whitemarsh, and VMSC-Narberth have returned the survey, to this we say THANK YOU. The remaining twelve we ask you to return the survey to the director as soon as possible. Your data is crucial to the success of this study. If you have any questions regarding the survey, please call or , or via at jsr178@psu.edu. You will be able to track the progress of the grant at Thank you in advance for your support and work on completing the survey. Jill Schumann Rumberger, Assistant Professor, Penn State University - Harrisburg Bureau of EMS Director Schmider Speaks on Draft Rules & Regulations: June 28 th, Director Schmider visited Montgomery County and spoke at the Training Campus on the new Act 37 and the proposed Rules and Regulations draft. The sessions were held in the morning and afternoon and were well attended with 48 coming to hear the latest information. A copy of the Power Point handout is included in your packets. The draft rules and regulations are still being written, but it is vitally important to enable all practitioners and people involved in the EMS system to have input and provide comments to the regs. Now is your chance to comment before formal hearings and hopefully ultimate passage by the legislature. The Rules and Regulations have several important sections that will change the face of EMS in the future. Once proposed to the legislature, and after formal hearings and passage, they are expected to be effective sometime in 2012, basically 180 days after passage by the legislature and signing of the Governor. Towne Manor Fire: Sunday, July 18 th at about 8:52 pm a call was received from the Towne Manor-west Assisted living home in East Norriton Township. The caller reported a fire on the roof and requested help. Fire and EMS units were dispatched and found 104 people that needed to be evacuated from immediate danger, and relocated because the fire made the structure untenable for several days. The primary response area of Plymouth Ambulance, multiple ambulances responded and neighboring communities were also summoned. The Montgomery County Public Safety Department, was also summoned as a special high hazard box, and due to the fact that 104 people were in need of care and transportation. Deputy Director Brown, Deputy Director Mickalonis and Tactical Dispatcher lead Hodges responded to Eagleville EOC. Brown continued on to assist the Incident Command team and Chief Trojansky and Assistant Chief Thomas at the scene. Over the next seven hours all patients were accounted for, Montgomery County Ambulance Association - Minutes of September 30 th, 2010 Page 5

6 stabilized, and safely moved to alternate facilities. Thirteen different EMS squads and two SEPTA buses safely moved eighty-five patients to sixteen different hospitals and nursing homes across three Counties. Scott Mickalonis and Chuck Hodges did an outstanding job with providing ambulances from across the County without stripping any area of EMS coverage. Once the units arrived on the scene, they staged properly, and in most cases were able to be routed to facilities in their immediate coverage area, which means they could go available after they made one trip. Plymouth Ambulance personnel along with County staff on scene coordinated the effort to ensure that each patient had a County Public Safety wristband with their name, and an exact chart of patients name, destination and transporting ambulance was kept by both Plymouth Ambulance staff and the assisted living home, ensuring that no patients were unaccounted for. A complete copy of the preliminary report is contained in your packet. Since the incident, MCEMS has been working closely with Plymouth Ambulance to assist in coordinating a bundled billing package for all the squads that transported patients. Plymouth Ambulance Administrator Ms. Tina Gambone has worked tirelessly to obtain the homes insurance information and worked with the squads to request their billing invoices from the patients they transported. MCEMS also conducted an after action report with Plymouth Ambulance to address all the activities that occurred that evening and to plan for any future incidents that might occur again at other high hazard facilities. Mad Mimi: The MCEMS office has activated an electronic message system. It will enable practitioners to sign on to receive free info about upcoming classes, job postings, equipment for sale, and other administrative information, including the upcoming summit. This IS NOT replacing the emergency alert system known as RSAN for emergency responders or Ready Notify for emergency messages for the general public. We encourage you to sign on, it only takes a minute and will keep you updated as to the latest info from the MCEMS office. New Verizon Phones: Members of County Public Safety have had their Nextels replaced by the County with Verizon Phones. The phone numbers are the same BUT they no longer have Nextel Direct Connect. The new phones do have Verizon push-to-talk and if you would like their PTT PIN number please call the EMS Office for their numbers. Flu Shots: There were be many drive through / drive up locations through the flu season. These shots will be free to county Public Safety providers that are Montgomery County Residents. October AJ Heightman MCI Course-Training Campus Co-Sponsored-MCEMS, Montgomery County Ambulance Administrator s, And Southeast PA Task Force Montgomery County Ambulance Association - Minutes of September 30 th, 2010 Page 6

7 E911 (Kenneth Schauder): No meeting since last January of Stephen Keeley previously reported that the County is looking into the possible dissolving of that committee. Rick Lohwasser states that ALL Public safety Committees are being looked at for consolidation. This committee has not been told of the future BUT it was recommended and agreed that this committee will be removed from the Association agenda as there has been no communication or meetings in almost two years. This is Ken Schauder s FINAL report for this committee and Ken was thanked for his years of commitment and willingness to serve on this committee since Communications (Kenneth Schauder / Rick Lohwasser): Alpha Paging the failed testing has been resolved and the manufacture found one module that was defective. Many Dispatch Centers have had the same problem and the smaller centers will have to send their transmitters back to the manufacturer to have the module repaired. EDS will do the modifications in-house. After the modules have been replaced there will be a burn-in period of about 30 days and if there are no problems the system will be activated. Unlike previous stated by EDS, this project will be activated BEFORE the VHF voice paging program since the time frame may be delayed for the voice dispatch and this project will be ready to turn on before the voice paging project is complete. Alpha Pagers. EDS states that they will NOT be releasing the 1200 alpha pagers UNTIL the paging project is complete because pagers may not activate under the present system. There was lengthy discussion on how that makes no sense and squads and fire companies are purchasing pagers even though there are pagers at the County waiting to be distributed. The squads already know how pagers operate under the current system and will not expect a difference under the present system. President Patrick Doyle will be sending a letter to the Director of EDS and copying the Director of Public Safety and the County Commissioners to distribute these pagers since we have been unable to get these pagers released. Voice Paging The County has sent letters to adjoining entities that MAY be affected by the transmission of voice with the new frequencies. Letters have been sent to the agencies that it will affect with a letter requesting a sign-off that transmissions on the new frequencies will not affect their current operations. If everything goes smoothly there will be at a minimum of 90 days until all letters are received back to the County. Rebanding As discussed at our last meeting this project will be started by the County by the end of October. This will be a long process and as previous stated the present analog 800 radios will NOT be replaced by Nextel as they found out there are over 80,000 radios in the Washington DC / Baltimoe area that need to be replaced and there is no way they are going to do that. This project will probably go until the end of Narrow-banding When narrow-banding happens it will change the coverage area of the radio system and more towers may need to be added. We had a long discussion on why hospital notifications cannot be done on 800 radios with EACH hospital having their own talk-group so that the hospitals would not have to listen to other hospital notifications and then turn down their radios in the ED. Rick gave a great technological explanation of why the additional talk-groups will harm the system more than it will help because of the additional scanning of the talk-groups and how it will make the system work less efficiently. The hospital notification of each hospital having it s own talkgroup will NOT happen under the present 800 radio system. Montgomery County Ambulance Association - Minutes of September 30 th, 2010 Page 7

8 There is a $50 million project on the drawing board to upgrade the 800 mhz system. Rick stated that 700 mhz frequencies will work on our system and the rumors that the County is moving to a 700 mhz system that will make all of our 800 radios unusable is untrue. Our system works with BOTH 700 and 800 frequencies and will be transparent to the end user. Synthesized Radio Dispatching They are still in the testing phase and Rick talked about some of the technical aspects of the dispatching of how it can be altered in high volume times. Cheltenham Police will be moving to their own County Dispatch zone and will be dispatched by the County starting October 1 st. There will be a reallocation of the County Police zones in the near future when up to five additional police departments will be moving to County dispatch. There was a long discussion of EMS having the police zone talkgroups in their radios like Bucks County allows. We will go through the proper channels and approach the EMS Council and use the Police representation on Council to discuss the possibility of EMS having police zones in EMS radios. We understand the ramifications of EMS having County Police zones in the EMS radios BUT believe the benefits will be greater than the disadvantages. Old business: MDC installations The County is waiting for the installation vendor to have ALL of the mounts and hardware in-hand BEFORE they will start the installation process. The first location will be at SARS for the east squads and then Pottstown for the west squads and then the PSTI for squads in the center that cannot attend the other two zones. New business: L-Vat patients Should we fly or should we drive. Squads are looking to MAC to develop policies on how to handle these patients. Lance Armstrong ride through Montgomery County It was pointed out that the Lance Armstrong Ride came through Montgomery County in August and no Montgomery County squads were asked to participate. It was a national event and a national ambulance was contracted to cover the riders. We cannot force an organization to have us participate in their event. The three day Cancer Walk benefiting the Susan G. Komen Foundation is October Ambulances will be needed to help out on this detail. Is anyone interested in putting together a web-site for our Association. Fitz Duffy will check to see if someone at his station that has computer talents would be interested. Your first Due is a site that will set up and host your site that we may want to look at to see if it fits our needs. There was a motion to spend $1000 to sponsor the lunch at the EMS Summit. The motion passed. There was a motion to reinstate dues for 2011 for the amount of $60 per squad. The motion passed. Medical Agreement there was a long discussion on the Medical Agreement (enclosed) that was proposed between hospitals and squads for the free replacement of drugs and supplies. Montgomery County Ambulance Association - Minutes of September 30 th, 2010 Page 8

9 The Association will work with Meg who represents the Hospitals on EMS Council to help squads get their meds. The nomination committee was formed Fred Trasatti and Erick Myers will co-chair the committee and will propose a slate at the January 2011 Annual Meeting. The next meeting will be our ANNUAL meeting and will be held at Plymouth Ambulance on January 13 th, 2011 at 1900 hours. Dinner will be served and elections will be held. The Meeting was adjourned at 1455 hours. Respectfully submitted, Kenneth Schauder Secretary Montgomery County Ambulance Association - Minutes of September 30 th, 2010 Page 9

Montgomery County Ambulance Association 345 VMSC Lansdale March 8 th, 2012 Lunch 1230 hours / Meeting 1300 hours

Montgomery County Ambulance Association 345 VMSC Lansdale March 8 th, 2012 Lunch 1230 hours / Meeting 1300 hours 2012 Officers Patrick A. Doyle Sr, President Kevin E. Bennett, Vice-President Kenneth J. Schauder, Secretary James Smale, Treasurer Mailing: Post Office Box #5 - Bryn Athyn, PA 19009 Montgomery County