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Union County Emergency Care Upgraded

Brad Palmer photo

There used to be three levels of ambulance care in Illinois: basic, intermediate and advanced.

But the Illinois Department of Public Health is eliminating the intermediate level. This forced those operating there, like Union County, to make a decision: either drop back to the basic level or make the jump up to the advanced level of care.

Union County chose the latter, and recently, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Southern Illinois Regional Emergency Medical Services System approved the Union County Ambulance Service for the Advanced Life Support licensure level.

Ambulance Service executive director Grant Capel says his crew spent their own money and traded shifts to go back to school and train at no cost to the taxpayers.

He says it took about two years for his staff to finish their training, pass the state boards and complete their one thousand hours of classroom time and hundreds of hours of clinical time with a physician or nurse.

Capel says this advanced level care designation allows his paramedics to provide many of the services of an emergency room while the patient is still in the ambulance.

One of the most important involves patients dealing with heart problems. Capel says cardiac monitors now allow them to send vital information to a physician from the ambulance in just minutes. 

Credit Brad Palmer
Cardiac monitor

Similar interventions are also taking place for stroke victims.

Capel says advanced care also provides more  medications to patients before they arrive at the hospital.
Capel says having these options available in the ambulance is critical in rural areas like Union, Alexander and Pulaski counties where hospitals are often a good distance away.

This distance to a hospital can be the difference between life and death. Capel says that's why paramedics report from the field to a resource hospital to relay information to a mobile intensive care nurse or an emergency room doctor.

In some cases, he says this communication allows for patients who are in need of surgery right away to bypass the emergency room and go straight to the operating room from the ambulance through a program called stat-heart.

In addition to earning the Advanced Life Support Licensure level, the Illinois Commerce Commission recently gave final approval for the Union County 9-1-1 Next Generation Modification Plan.

The difference between the current 9-1-1 system and "Next Generation" 9-1-1 is the ability to receive text and live streaming video over a dedicated IP fiber network.

Thus far, the Union County 9-1-1 System is one of only seven systems in Illinois to receive Next Generation 9-1-1 approval.

This isn't the end of the advancements for emergency response in Union County.

The state department of public health recently awarded the ambulance service a grant for a new stair-chair.
Capel says before, two paramedics had to actually lift the patient and the chair to navigate a flight of stairs. But, this new chair has tracks that make transport safer for the patient and the paramedics.

Credit Brad Palmer
Stair Chair

Union County Emergency Medical Technician Michael Hartman says patients love the stair chair and the department's new power cots.

Capel says there are more advancements coming in 2015.
 

As a news producer and news anchor on All Things Considered, Brad provides the listeners with a recap of the day's top local and state news as well as breaking news at any given time. Contact WSIU Radio at 618-453-6101 or email wsiunews@wsiu.org
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