News & Announcements

The week of May 21 – 27, 2017 is EMS Week and, in a collaborative effort by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and American Medical Response (AMR) will also be the week of a World CPR Challenge.  Any organization is welcome to join the effort which aims to train a million citizens in hands-only CPR.  A website has been set up at www.acep.org/emsweek/cprchallenge/ that includes logos, brochures, sample press releases and other material for interested organizations (all located in the banner at the top of the page).  The site also allows reporting of citizens trained.  Hands-only CPR can be taught by any provider in a mere 2-3 minutes.

Tracy Weir, Assistant Chief of Operations for Waterford Rescue Squad has been named to fill the vacant EMS Deputy Coordinator position, effective December 15th, 2016.  In appointing her, EMS Coordinator Mike McEvoy said, “Tracy has taken a lead role in several important projects including the BERT team, IamResponding and mutual aid planning.  She will be a great addition to our team.”  Tracy’s identifier will be EMS-3.  Her photo and contact email are on the Coordinator page.

The Saratoga County EMS Council’s Spring 2017 course schedule has been released and sign up for classes on the Council web site is open.  Courses include an EMT Original and EMT Refresher at the Malta-Stillwater EMS main station and an EMT Original class for Military Veterans at the Clifton Park & Halfmoon Ambulance Corps. Click here for a PDF copy of the class schedule.  To enroll in classes, select “EMS Professionals” above and then click “Register.”  If you don’t see a class that meets your needs, please visit www.nyemtinfo.com for other courses in the area.

Effective Monday, March 7th (2016) at 0800, crew confirmation will be implemented for EMS calls. If a crew has not been confirmed within 3 minutes of initial call activation, EMS Dispatch will Mutual Aid the call following the MAP on file. Confirmation means radio communication with EMS Dispatch by by a member of the activated EMS service indicating that a crew is available. The 5 minute MA mark remains unchanged, that is, if an ambulance is not enoute to the call within 5 minutes of initial activation, the call will be Mutual Aided. A copy of the policy change has been posted on the downloads page (link above). For a copy with the pertinent changes highlighted (in yellow), click here. This change is being implemented by County EMS Coordinator Mike McEvoy at the request of the Saratoga County EMS Council. Direct any questions or comments to Coordinator McEvoy.

County EMS Coordinator has issued Policy 15-02, Field Pronouncements of Death in an effort to standardize this practice across services in the County. Multiple agencies contributed to this policy including the County Coroners, County Sheriff, State Police, numerous hospitals, DOH, REMO, the REMAC and the Saratoga County EMS Council. A copy of the policy is available on the Downloads tab above or by clicking here.