Powder River Examiner -

By Shane & Kesa Copps

Happy New Year to Powder River County, our friends and neighbors. We hope the new year is prosperous and that we all are able to stay safe.

We had a very busy year in 2019 and want to share some of these things with you. Our two entities combined for a record-breaking year of 167 responses. This is up from the last three years by about 35%. We did this with fewer EMTs as we had a couple EMTs who have been unable to go due to work or personal issues. We still have 8 EMTs on our roster but some live at distances that preclude 911 responses.

Of the 167 responses we had, 111 of them had patients taken to an ER. We had 12 standbys at football games and rodeos and 44 wellness checks who did not require transport. Of these 167 responses, one volunteer EMT was on over 100 of them.

With each trip to the ER being a minimum of 3.5 hours from call out to returning to the ambulance barn, these are a lot of hours your Volunteer EMTs spent in the ambulance. Many of our calls took longer, with the longest call of the year taking just over 7.5 hours.

With that being said, we also are averaging just under 7.5 minutes from call to enroute (wheels rolling) time this year. We have been able to decrease this time over the last 3-4 years, when it was well over 14 min. Please think about this when you want to just load someone and go, or think you need to drive fast to get them to an ER. Your local ambulance service has more equipment and training than you do and can be anywhere in the county pretty fast. If you take them yourselves, you may make it as far as Olive from town, while in the same time allotment our EMTs could be on scene treating that person. You would still have 60 miles to go to get them help. We can get them IVs, secure their airway or give them medications to reduce the complications of heart attacks or stroke long before they can get to the ER.

Speaking of IV’s, we placed 75 of them last year on patients and saw a very visible change in the well being of most of those patients. We gave 11 patients heart medications and 8 other patients medication to assist in their breathing. We were able to give 11 patients some pain relief with our nitrous system, which makes a big difference to those needing it on these long trips. While the nitrous doesn’t take away all the pain on the ride, it sure helps make it much more bearable. While some of these numbers don’t seem like a lot, please remember that 4 years ago, none of these things were available here in Broadus.

As a group, your First Responders attended over 1010 hours of class and training. We trained in everything from scene safety, when our friends at Black Hills Life Flight came to town, to advanced airway techniques and cardiac management. Two of our EMTs were able to earn the certification/ licensure of Advanced EMT in March. While not a huge jump in capabilities, it does give those two personnel a few more tools to use and a much greater knowledge base.

We have upgraded our radios this year. We have better communications with not only our dispatch, but with other community’s EMS services and dispatches. This means we have more help and safer routes to get our patients to the ER. We were able to get enough grant funding to purchase a second heart monitor. This gives our second out unit almost the same exact capabilities as our first out unit.

Our CIH program has taken more time than planned due to a couple of setbacks at the state level as well as one setback locally. We hope that these setbacks have been rectified and with just a few more days training, we will be able to start our roll out of the program. We feel this program will be beneficial to the county and will make a large impact on local healthcare. Quite a bit of behind the scenes work, training and planning has gone into this program and we are excited to offer it to you in the coming weeks.

We are always looking for help, both financially and in personnel. We know that the idea of being an EMT and seeing some of the “gross and scary” sights can be off putting, but please understand that, first, they are usually not as scary or even as gross as you think they are and secondly, you are helping out your neighbor who is in trouble. There are lots of trips where there is nothing scary or gory about it, but it is someone needing some help to get to a doctor. We also know that a lot of hours are required but we try and make that fun for those who are taking the class. Please consider becoming an EMT and helping your neighbors, family and friends when they are in need.

We would like to thank the Sheriff, Deputies, Dispatchers and especially the Fire Department guys and gals for their help in the past year. Numerous times they have made phone calls or helped load and drive our ambulance when situations were tough. Without their support, friendship and helping hands, we would not be as capable as we are.

Our future looks to be bright. We have 2 full, specialized training days planned for May, at least two training classes for Jan and Feb planned and a training session with the nursing home staff is scheduled. We are in talks with other trainers to have them come down throughout the spring and summer to do classes and the AEMTs are exploring venues to get financial help to attend Paramedic school. The CIH program is almost up and running and more equipment is being sourced all the time.

We hope that you are as proud of your EMS service as we are, and we want to thank you for your support. Please visit with any of us if you have ideas or questions for us.