Menter Ambulance Awarded With Upstate University Hospital Critical Care Transport Grant

by Submitted article | November 1, 2022 9:10 am

FULTON — Since December of 2020, Menter Ambulance has seen the need for critical care transport services to benefit patients who require transport from Oswego Hospital to other hospitals in the Syracuse area and beyond.

To establish and maintain an effective critical care transport program, a major financial commitment is required. To that end, Menter Ambulance applied for, and received the Critical Care Transport Grant in the amount of $12,500 from Upstate University Hospital on August 15, 2022 with plans to continue implementation of a Critical Care Transport Program to benefit residents of Oswego County.

In December 2020 it was identified that there was a lack of critical care capable ground services in the Oswego County area. The primary transport method of these critically ill or injured patients from Oswego Hospital to the regional centers in Syracuse was dependent almost exclusively on air transport.

Recognizing our geographic location is off the coast of Lake Ontario which often experiences inclement weather in the winter months which greatly decreases the availability of air medical services, Menter Ambulance sought to develop a critical care training regimen to produce nationally accredited critical care paramedics that would be able to provide critical care transport ground services, especially when aeromedical services are unavailable.

Furthermore, due to drastic changes in resource availability due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Menter leadership decided more could be done to assist the local community by advancing our providers’ practice.

Prior to December of 2020, if a patient was on a ventilator and being managed with multiple medications these ground transports would require a respiratory therapist and/or registered nurse to accompany the patient.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that it is not practical for community hospitals, such as Oswego Hospital, to spare the necessary staff needed to accompany these patients. Being awarded this grant allows Specialty Care / Critical Care Transport teams to be able to be completely self-sufficient in providing patient transfer services to patients at Oswego Hospital without the need of additional hospital staff accompanying the patient during transport.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic almost all interfacility transfers went to Syracuse area hospitals which is roughly 40 miles from Oswego Hospital, but it is not uncommon for Menter Ambulance to transport patients needing Critical Care Transport services to destinations much farther than Syracuse.

“With staffing being a continuous struggle throughout the pandemic, especially in critical care positions within our ER, the current transport model presents a significant challenge to manage as it takes one of our nurses out of the department for a minimum of three hours to assist with the transport. These are resources we just cannot ultimately afford to lose,” said Jennifer Fassano, RN, BSN, Director of the Emergency Department at Oswego Health.

Through 2021 an initial nine paramedics were chosen to participate in an introduction to critical care patient management. The focus of this development plan was to slowly introduce knowledge-based material while offering hands-on practice within our capabilities of the new material.

To date, they have five paramedics that have earned the critical care paramedic (CCP-C)or the flight paramedic(FP-C) designation on staff, certified by the International Board of Specialty Certification with a new class of paramedics beginning their critical care training program in the near future.

“This further training and additional equipment, will not only help maintain staffing within our ER, but this program will directly benefit patients in our community needing transport,” said Oswego Health’s EVP & Chief Operating Officer Michael C. Backus.

The funds received from the Upstate grant allow Menter Ambulance to provide additional training and purchase clinical equipment that will allow us a more robust training program to keep our personnel proficient and challenged and to continue growing as prehospital critical care transport providers.

For more information about Menter Ambulance’s Critical Care Transport Program, please contact Menter Ambulance’s Public Information Officer, Joseph Provost at 315-592-4145 x.163 or by email at [email protected]. Menter Ambulance can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/menteramb and on the web at www.menteramb.com

Menter Ambulance is a privately owned ambulance service located in Oswego County. The service has been in existence since 1952 and currently has bases of operations in Fulton, Oswego, and Central Square, and provides service to many surrounding municipalities. The service provides Advanced Life Support emergency ambulance transport, and non-emergent transportation. The mission of Menter Ambulance is to provide high quality, effective prehospital care to the residents of Oswego County.

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/news/fulton/menter-ambulance-awarded-with-upstate-university-hospital-critical-care-transport-grant/

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