Wednesday, August 31, 2005
August has been another very busy month for Mayo EMS at both the Dexter and Dover-Foxcroft bases; I do not have the final call volume numbers yet but several times during the month we had 5 trucks handling calls at the same time and at least one day we had 6 trucks covering calls at the same time. Mutual aid to Corinna continues to be up; during the first six months of 2005 we handled 27.5% of Corinna's total call volume, mostly from the Dexter base. We met with Corinna officials last month and have entered into a good faith agreement to put a contract together over the next few weeks to take over management of the Corinna Ambulance service similar to the one we have in Dexter. Because of the Corinna situation we are able to justify 24 hour, 7 day per week paramedic coverage in Dexter and have maintained that staffing level for approximately 1 year. We will be using the Dexter based crew to provide ALS for the Corinna crews and in some cases call coverage; hopefully over time that will decrease some as we improve staffing in Corinna. In an effort to provide the best coverage for the entire area we will bring a crew from Dover-Foxcroft to the Dexter base to stand-by whenever the Dexter crew is out of the area when it is possible for us to do so. We were able to further increase our capabilities last month when we completed our paramedic program. Eight of our EMT-intermediates are now licensed paramedics and are undergoing orientation with our senior paramedics. This brings us to 20 paramedics on our roster which also includes 10 EMT-intermediates, 11 basic EMTs and 6 drivers. We will begin a basic EMT course in Dover-Foxcroft in September that hopefully will further enrich our roster.
Respectfully Submitted
Brian K Mullis, WEMT-P, I/C
EMS Director
Mayo Regional Hospital