Anybody remember Mrs. Fletcher? “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” Was it ever that easy?
On the northshore, ambulance service providers respond to thousands of calls each year. A combination of “routine” medical emergencies such as heart attacks, severe falls, motor vehicle accidents, and simple “transport” runs to doctor visits, keep the companies, public agencies – and the employees who staff them – busy from dawn ‘til dusk, 24/7/365.
By far the largest provider of ambulance service in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parishes is the Lafayette-based Acadian Ambulance. “Acadian Ambulance began in 1971 in Lafayette parish with two ambulances and eight team members,” said Danny Lennie, Vice President of Operations for Acadian. “Today we serve 38 parishes/counties in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. We now have over 2,600 team members and transport approximately 1,000 patients per day.”
“We began operations in Tangipahoa in 1982 with three ambulances and 18 team members,” continued Lennie. “Today we operate 11 ambulances during peak times and employ 54 full-time team members. We began operations in St. Tammany in 1995 with four ambulances and 20 full-time team members. Today we operate 16 ambulances during peak times and employ 78 team members. Total full-time and part-time team members for this two-parish area number just under 200.”
Wow ... 200? When you consider the incredible growth of the northshore parishes, particularly in the last four years, it only stands to reason that emergency response would have to grow, too.
In St. Tammany’s 4th Ward, which encompasses the City of Mandeville and surrounds it to the north and east, Fire District 4 is the primary provider of ambulance service. “St. Tammany Fire District 4 began providing advanced life support ambulance service to ward four in October of 1994 with two ambulances and about nine paramedics,” said Frank Jordan, EMS Director at Fire District 4. “All the paramedics were cross-trained as firefighters to supplement the fire service as well as provide an advanced level of ambulance service. Today St. Tammany Fire District 4 supports six ambulances and nearly 60 paramedics.”
Are you keeping up? Fire protection providers in a number of localities also offer ambulance service, bringing the total number of emergency response personnel – in ambulance service alone – to about 300, if not more. Seem like a lot? Think again.
“We run a two-tier system,” Lennie said. “We respond to and transport both emergencies and non-emergencies. We do not refuse anyone requesting emergency assistance. Some of the more common emergency calls are medical issues like breathing and circulatory issues, vehicular accidents, and trauma produced as a result of falls, guns and knives. On the non-emergency side we do a significant amount of transportation of patients to and from doctor appointments, dialysis centers, rehabilitation centers, and hospitals. These are transports that require medical necessity for ambulance transportation and are usually pre-scheduled. Approximately 60 percent of our business is non-emergent and 40 percent is emergent.”
Now THAT may seem upside-down. After all, from the time we get driving licenses – if not before – we’re taught to be on the lookout for ambulances running to and from emergencies, and to get out of their way. To find out more than half are non-emergencies is a bit of a surprise, although it still should go without saying that an ambulance riding with its lights and sirens on IS, in fact, responding to an emergency. So get out of the way.
Ambulance service providers do more than just change the oil on the vehicles’ engines and go through medical training to be prepared. In fact, a lot of careful planning and long-term strategy development – not to mention creative funding – come into play.
“In 2001 St. Tammany Fire District 4 received a grant from the U.S. fire administration to purchase 12 lead-capable cardiac monitors,” Jordan said. “All Fire District personnel were trained to set up and record a 12-lead Electro-cardiogram (EKG) in the field. At the same time that all this training was going on, Lakeview Regional Medical Center and the Louisiana Heart Hospital were purchasing equipment that would allow them to receive EKGs from the field.”
So doctors and nurses at the ER can have advance information when a heart patient is en route to the facility? “With this technology, emergency room physicians are able to read and interpret a patient’s cardiac abnormality long before the victim entered the emergency room,” Jordan said. “This technology, coupled with hospital and physician participation, enabled victims of cardiac-related injuries to be treated by paramedics long before reaching the emergency department. Today, with the advent in cellular and e-mail technology St. Tammany cardiologists are able to receive 12-lead EKGs on their smart phones directly from an ambulance in the field. All of St. Tammany’s hospitals are moving toward acquiring this latest technology.”
At Acadian, the emphasis is not only on mobile technology but aviation – big, mobile, gravity-defying technology. “We do have a full-time air ambulance serving the northshore area,” Lennie said of the Acadian helicopter that can carry two patients and a paramedic. “It is based out of the Abita Springs airport and is dispatched by our communications center. The decision to originate an air response is based on the location of the call, producing a timely response, the situation surrounding the call for assistance (like a major highway accident), and the condition of the patient or patients given to us by the caller. On many calls we will dual-respond by air and ground. In addition, our air division now has five airplanes (four King Air turbo props and one Lear Jet) which are used daily for patient transportation and/or charter services.”
Fasten your seatbelts and return your tray table to its upright and locked position. Help is on the way.
Among the lessons – and results – of that unpleasant 2005 weather event was the shortage of healthcare personnel, including in the emergency response field. To combat that issue, Fire District 4 took an innovative approach. “In 2006, Fire District 4 partnered with Delgado community college to create an adjunct facility on the northshore specifically for teaching paramedic programs,” Jordan said. “As a result of this partnership St. Tammany Fire District 4 and Delgado community college applied for grants through the Louisiana Incumbent Workers Grant program which provided for tuition, books, and about $500,000 in teaching aids for the northshore campus, which is located on St. Tammany Fire District 4’s training facility in Mandeville. Since its conception, the program has graduated 30 paramedics from across St. Tammany Parish. The program includes all college level classes and students receive college credit toward an associate’s degree in applied sciences.”
Feeling safer? You should. “Our ambulances are always staffed with two team members,” Lennie said. “One is a Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic and the other is a Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Technician-Basic. Quality issues like training, response times, medical protocol/care, and staffing are all addressed in our contract. We also have a formal quality review program that reviews any potential quality issues identified from internal or external sources. In addition, our quality program also regularly reviews many operational parameters daily, weekly, monthly, and annually.”
No matter what your medical emergency or where you are on the northshore, ambulance service providers are available to help.
“All five of St. Tammany parish hospitals - St. Tammany Parish Hospital, Lakeview Regional Medical Center, Louisiana Medical Center and Heart Hospital, North Shore Regional Medical Center, and Slidell Memorial Hospital - as well as all of the ambulance providers - St. Tammany Fire District 1, St. Tammany Fire District 3 in Lacombe, St. Tammany Fire District 4 in Mandeville, St. Tammany Fire District 11 in Pearl River, and Acadian Ambulance - have been working together to streamline how we provide emergency medical treatment for St. Tammany Parish,” Jordan said.
So while there’s still reason to be cautious, wear seatbelts, and avoid slip-and-fall accidents at home, there’s a certain sense of security in knowing what’s out there – and just how qualified our responders are.