By MaryAlice Meli
New Castle News
May 14, 2008 06:54 am
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Two weeks ago, Ellwood City council demanded improved response time and location service from county ambulance companies.
Monday night, representatives from Medevac and Noga Ambulance Service reported they have instituted procedures to address both issues.
Complaints from residents focused on two incidents. In one, response time was alleged to have taken 35 minutes; in another, the ambulance was said to have traveled in an opposite direction from Ellwood City Hospital.
Medevac president Edward L. Heltman said his company has installed global positioning systems in all the ambulances to better locate most call locations and navigate the way to the hospital.
However, he noted, company records show only one call from Rosannah Street that took six minutes for the ambulance to arrive, not the 35 minutes alleged. He added that “from the time of the call to arrival at Ellwood City Hospital was 32 minutes.”
Brian Shaw, chief of Noga’s ambulance service, said all ambulances in the fleet are equipped with the navigational system. However, he reminded council that not all of the county’s 1,500 roads have been mapped into the system.
Shaw said that in another incident where response time was criticized, a call for an ambulance was received, then a second call canceled it and yet a third call in the same incident came in but with a description of non-emergency.
Heltman said he has implemented an on-call system for off-duty personnel in the area to respond via radio in case of emergency when on-duty staff and equipment may be at some distance. He said, in those cases, additional ambulances and equipment are at the station in Ellwood.
Earl Forsythe, Medevac director of operations, said 10 to 12 people live within five minutes of the station. “We’ll set the pagers off and whoever is available can respond.” He said one person can go immediately to stabilize the patient while another goes for the ambulance.
Councilman Anthony “Lefty” DeCarbo brought up the issue of ambulance personnel attending a convention on the night thought by some to have resulted in a response by an Enon Valley team.
The conference was thought to have caused a personnel shortage, Forsythe said, “but there were no fewer ambulances on the scene. The (number of) personnel was the same but the call volume was greater than usual.”
Shaw said earlier five ambulances had been dispatched by the 911 center within an 85-minute period including a sixth team of off-duty personnel in addition to the Enon Valley service.
Brian Melcer, the county’s public safety director, said 911 dispatchers call out volunteer companies such as Enon Valley, Pulaski and New Wilmington when circumstances arise where neither Noga nor Medevac is available. He said the on-call companies notify the center when they are not available.
Shaw then gave borough council an assignment.
In a power point presentation, he showed photos of houses in the borough where too small numerals have not been placed uniformly and may be found on steps, on roofs, near mailboxes and front doors. In one instance, the numbers were in decorative but hard-to-read cursive writing. Some were painted in white or black on brick.
Councilwoman Angela Valvano suggested that council study ordinances from other municipalities that require house numbers to be uniform in size and on a reflective backing.
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