OCR Text |
Show o4 i J- II - J; I II ' . V . 8 . ? - I Iff I ;: ' ' 1 r ' i NAVITITY SCENE The LDSSA will present the auditorium Saturday , ' Sunday and Monday annual Navitity Scene at the front of the SUSC evenings. Ambulance responso f i m termed 'Excellent' Critcisms of the volunteer ambulance am-bulance service not being adequate are at this point unfounded, Susan Taysom, director of nursing at Valley View Medical Center, said this week, pointing to the response time of the volunteers. ,. "The response time of the services has been much better than I ever thought it would be," she said. "We anticipated a 10-12 minute lag from receiving the call to getting the ambulance out of the hospital. "But all calls have been under five minutes so far." The county has accepted 20 Emergency Medical Technicians for the service, she said, 12 from Cedar City, and four each from Brian Head and Parowan, Work Together "We are very pleased we can all work together on this thing," she said. "The volunteers all have different jobs but their attendance, enthusiasm and interest has been running very high." Miss Taysom said the EMT's have completed a defensive driving course and will continue to receive training in Cardio-puliminary techniques, intra-veneous feedings and other life-saving life-saving techniques. "The county has put a lot of money Lnio the ambulance," Miss Taysom said, "as it was not properly equipped -when they obtained it. They have purchased new equipment and updated up-dated standardized radio equipment." equip-ment." Presently the county service has only one ambulance, she said, with the new modular unit scheduled to arrive December 12. Paramedic Program? The hospital staff is also looking forward to the possibility of getting involved in a state paramedic program, being pushed by state emergency medical services personnel. per-sonnel. She said the paramedic course would provide from 500-2000 hours of training in comparison with an EMT's 80 hour course. The funding for such an advanced course is available, Miss Taysom said. "Eventually we would like to see a paramedic go out with each call - to have a paramedic on each shift. And our population is sometimes so far from a hospital, we demonstrate a greater need for paramedics than does Salt Lake City." Twenty-four calls were made by the ambulance, service in November, Miss Taysom added, and 12 runs being made in just the past week. "Some of the calls have been of a real critical nature, too," she said. "We have seen more action in the past two weeks than I can remember." It is really landing on us." Remain Calm The base rate and the milage charge has been lowered from the original estimate, Miss Taysom said, "and after the initial expense of buying the two vehicles it will probably be able to drop even more." Presently the base rate is $47.50 and $1.50 per mile. Some callers desiring the ambulance am-bulance still need to remember to remain calm, Miss Taysom said, with an accurate address given. The number to call the ambulance is the hospital number, 586-6587, she added. |