Overlook Area First Aid Council

Meeting Minutes

November 13, 2003

Squads In Attendance:

  • Berkeley Heights Vol Rescue
  • Fanwood Rescue Squad
  • Long Hill First Aid Squad
  • Millburn Short Hills VFAS
  • New Providence EMS
  • Scotch Plains Rescue Squad
  • Springfield First Aid Squad
  • Summit Vol. EMS
  • Watchung Rescue Squad
  • Westfield Rescue Squad
    		•

    Atlantic Health System Representatives

    • Jim Itzcovitz, MD Overlook ER
    • Pat Gabriel, RN Overlook ER
    • Flo Richards, Atlantic Ambulance
    • Gareth Williams, Cencom
    • Deborah Timpson, MICU

    Others

    • Frank Goodstein, Mobilization

    The meeting was called to order at 8:05 p.m. by President Sue Meyer.

    Emergency Room

    Pat Gabriel reported the new ER temporary entrance is now open. The new ambulance entrance is being worked on now and will take approximately 10-12 weeks. New signs were going up today. The squad equipment room is being moved tomorrow to the old room 4 temporarily. This will also put the AED computer out of service once again.

    Several squads (Millburn-Short Hills and Westfield) had complaints about the parking in the ambulance entrance area. At times it has been so bad that Millburn-Short Hills cannot pull their rig into the ambulance area. Pat stated that the police and security are keeping an eye on the parking in that area and will enforce the rules. Suggestions were made that a possible 'open house' be held prior to the opening of the next stage of the ER so that squads could walk thru. Pat said she will try but it would be hard because it is an active patient area and when they finally get the "OK" to open, they move right ahead. She will e-mail Sue Meyer with the next approximate opening date. We also discussed the original design of the ambulance area (6 rigs under the canopy; 6 outside the canopy.) Questions were asked about temporarily striping the parking area; Pat stated that permits couldn't be issued to stripe the temporary lines.

    Howie Meyer questioned where the Decon area was going to be in the new ER as the old instructions were that squads were to take contaminated patients to the morgue. Pat stated that the Decon area will be there at the ER and will be locked. Last Tuesday's decon incident will be revised and critiqued by all agencies involved; Pat also said that Union County Haz Mat is the expert in the area of contamination/decontamination and they (the ER doctors) defer to Union County's decisions on how to handle contaminated personnel/patients. Overlook does have it's own decon team, it depends on the patients condition and the situation whether they activate or defer to Union County Haz Mat Team.

    AED Calls

    Debbie Kapral was asked about AED calls and the procedure for reporting the use of an AED since the AED computer is usually out of service and some squads are unable to print out the report. Debbie stated that squads can use the Atlantic Health AED run sheet or the AED printout as long as all the information is on one of them (you don't need to do both.) She needs a copy via fax, snail mail or interoffice mail for all AED calls for Quality Control; the ER needs the reports if you bring a patient into the ER after using the AED.

    Cencom

    Gareth reported that Cencom is updating a repeater. He will send out the new frequency with the next month so that the squads have it. NJ 911 EMD cards are being revised and are awaiting approval. These new guidelines will restrict when ALS is to be dispatched simultaneously with BLS. Of course, you can still ask for a Medic Unit and you will receive one.

    Mobilization

    Frank Goodstein reminded everyone of the Port Newark Drill.

    Training

    There is a Core 13 at Westfield Squad this coming weekend.

    Next meeting is Wednesday, January 14th at 8:00 p.m. Meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.

    Respectfully submitted,

    Sue Meyer, President

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