AHN’s new paramedic response unit offers help to those in rural Butler County
Medical emergencies are not reserved for people in close proximity to emergency service providers.
According to the National Rural Health Association, four out of five counties — 82% — have at least one ambulance desert, being 25 minutes or more from services.
While there are services available in rural parts of Northern Butler County, the response times are not always what anyone would hope.
Eagle staff writer hunter Hunter Muro told us in a report in Wednesday’s edition that, to lessen the impact of increasing emergency service response times, Allegheny Health Network is now offering a new paramedic response unit.
Paramedic Response Unit 956 was devised over a two-year period to alleviate some of the pressure on local EMS agencies, such as those in North Washington Township, where an ambulance can take up to 30 minutes or longer to arrive on scene.
AHN also will staff the new unit 24/7 with three new full-time employees and anywhere between five to seven part-time positions. The unit will be housed at the North Washington Volunteer Fire Department for a heavily discounted cost.
“Our purpose is to provide paramedics additional medications and additional training to be able to reduce that first medical contact time so that we can at least start to care for the patient while the ambulance is still en route,” AHN prehospital business development specialist Nico Soler said. “Also if the ambulance is understaffed or a patient requires more aggressive care, we can also function as an extra set of hands.”
While this is a much-needed service for the coverage area, it is by far not the only shortage that needs to be covered.
Eight municipalities in the southwestern portion of Butler County recently banded together to conduct an intergovernmental emergency medical services study to uncover what can be done in the midst of ongoing funding and staffing issues.
Cranberry Township leaders began formulating a plan for the study and then invited Evans City, Harmony, Seven Fields, Zelienople and Jackson, Forward and Lancaster townships.
These are all encouraging developments, but more needs to be done.
“I think that this is a step in the right direction,” said county Commissioner Kevin Boozel. “This is a community response to a known crisis. We can do all these studies, but they all attribute it to the same issues, which are obviously funding, staffing and resources. We have to do better with resources.”
— RJ
