DEXTER - September is shaping up to be a record busy month for Mayo EMS and the Dexter Ambulance in particular. To date in September 65 calls have been handled by the Dexter unit; not including the calls handled by trucks from Dover on stand-by at the Dexter base while the Dexter unit was on calls. Of those calls, 34 were in the traditional Dexter area of Dexter, Garland and Ripley with the vast majority in Dexter. 31 calls were mutual aid calls that broke down in the following way 22 to Corinna and Exeter, 6 to Sebasticook Valley Hospital or Hartland-St. Albans area, 2 to Mayo and 1 to Harmony.
This brings up two primary concerns with this situation. One is that for an average of 12% of the time the crew covering Dexter is handling a call in another town. We have addressed this concern by sending a truck from Dover to stand-by in Dexter whenever possible when the Dexter truck leaves town; we have been able to do this consistently about 90% of the time.
The other concern is that the Town of Dexter owns the ambulance we are using on the majority of these mutual aid calls. We are doing a much higher number of out of Dexter calls than ever in the past so this week we instituted a departmental procedure change where we will be utilizing the Mayo owned vehicle we keep in Dexter for all out of Dexter calls handled from that base whenever possible.
Furthermore as of October 1, we have made changes to the Corinna service that we are now officially operating. We have licensed and permitted that service with the state to run at the paramedic level so we are now staffing peak hours in Corinna with a paramedic. We also were able to put a schedule in place that gives Corinna 95% coverage with their own ambulance as opposed to the 70% they have been running; with 65% of that time covered at the paramedic level.
Folks listening to their scanners will still hear Dexter and Corinna simultaneously dispatched to maintain dispatch consistency and insure a paramedic staffed ambulance will reach every call, however much of the time the Dexter crew will just acknowledge the page and remain in Dexter.
With 5 of our new paramedics getting licensed and completing orientation and an additional two paramedics hired we now have 19 active paramedics on our roster doing regular time in Dexter, Dover-Foxcroft and Corinna. With the addition of Corinna personnel we have a total of 57 active people on the roster of those 12 are intermediate EMTs 2 of which have completed the paramedic program and are in the licensing/orientation process and 2 more are currently in class to become paramedics, 16 are basic EMTs and 10 are drivers.
As we continue to grow and improve as an EMS service our Dexter operation becomes more important to us and we appreciate the continued support of the Dexter residents; thank you.
Brian K Mullis, WEMT-P, I/C
EMS Director, Mayo Regional Hospital