by Garrick Moritz, Gazette
The Garretson Ambulance will have their annual Fundraising Breakfast on Sunday, April 16th from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
In anticipation for that, we spoke to Gail Nelson of the Garretson Ambulance about some of the new technology they’ve incorporated into their ambulance services. One thing she told us was that they were wise to upgrade to their new ambulance cruiser when they did, as the price for these new units has risen almost 20 thousand dollars since their purchase.
Nelson also took us on a tour of the latest gadget and service that the Garretson EMS has acquired.
“This program is brand new, and South Dakota is one of the first states in the country to implement a program like this,” she said. “And the Garretson Ambulance was either the eighth or ninth service in our region to enroll in this program. It takes existing remote access technology and employs it in a brand-new way.”
“The service is called AVEL eCare for EMS,” she continued. “They were originally an Avera based program, but now they’ve gone independent and are offering their services to Avera, Sanford and anyone else on the market. What it is, simply, is having a doctor or provider on call 24/7, and using a mounted swivel in our Ambulance, have a live video call with that provider in real time.”
“All of our EMS workers are trained and professional, but that doesn’t mean we’ve got the knowledge base of a doctor or medical provider. If we get stumped, and nothing we try is working, sometimes we need a doctor’s advice, and calling on a cell phone can sometimes take precious minutes that the patient doesn’t have. With this service, doctors have signed up to take blocks of time to be on call, and the connection is almost instant. They can see us, we can see them and talk to everyone in the ambulance in real time. If the patient is conscious and coherent, they can talk to a doctor in real time too, ask questions back and forth. It’s one of those ideas that seems obvious when you think about it, the technology exists and is readily available, but actually putting it into action adds a whole new dimension to the care we’re able to offer a patient when we get the call.”
Nelson said that the service has already proved its worth the Garretson Ambulance. As they did a technical check of the system, Nelson told the Gazette that they’ll be talking to the usagain soon about another service that’s on the horizon for the Garretson EMS, a home healthcare worker program that they’ll be starting up.
Meanwhile, come out to support the people that are there for this community when we need them most.
