by Rachel Hunter
The Gouverneur Rescue Squad responded to 2,253 calls last year, making 2022 the busiest year in the agency’s history, according to Gouverneur Rescue Squad Director Mark Deavers who gave a report at the Jan. 10 meeting of the Town of Gouverneur Council.
The 2,253 calls included a total of 1,644 911 calls and 608 calls were for hospital-hospital transport. “If we go back to 2019, we had 1638 total responses that year. It is quite a jump. What the cause is, I am not 100 percent sure,” he said.
“In other news, we have a new EMT Class starting in Gouverneur on Sunday,” Director Deavers said. “It’s hybrid, so half of the sessions will be on Zoom from their home if they so desire… and that ends sometime in June, I believe. Our education grant, we are doing a lot of continuing education classes. We did one last Tuesday in conjunction with SUNY and had about 140 people on the call, which is quite a bit larger than we ever expected it to be. UVM does pretty routine education online, and they are lucky to have a dozen. We’ve been pretty blessed with it to be able to attract some of the larger talent. They have graciously donated an hour of their life to talk to people, at this point, all across New York State. That is the excitement.”
“That is a huge jump in responses,” Supervisor Dave Spilman, Jr. said.
“Yeah, staffing has been a little bit challenging with that big of a jump,” Director Deavers said. “The other thing we are seeing routinely is that we are moving patients quite a bit farther than we used to on the hospital-to-hospital side. We used to go to Rochester and Albany once or twice a year. It’s a couple times per week now that we are going there. A lot of it is tied to the bottleneck in Syracuse, at the Syracuse area hospitals, they are at their capacity of limitations right now.”
Supervisor Spilman said, “I thought when the local hospitals up here started partnering up with the bigger hospitals, that once that partnership was made, if someone needed to be sent somewhere, that it would be to the sponsor’s hospital.”
“Yeah,” Director Deavers said. “I am looking forward to Canton-Potsdam finishing their 50-bed addition. A lot of what we are moving isn’t because Canton-Potsdam can’t handle it, it is because they don’t have the bed capacity for it. My folks will be quite a bit happier. The drive to CPH is a lot nicer than Albany or Rochester.”
Supervisor Spilman said, “Six dollars per gallon for fuel doesn’t help either.”
“Yes, I love getting the fuel bill,” Director Deavers said.
“I can imagine,” Supervisor Spilman said in response. “We did get your contract today. We all haven’t had the chance to review it yet, but we will.”
Town of Gouverneur Councilman Curran Wade then complimented Director Deavers on his recent reports to local broadcast media.
Much gratitude was extended to Director Deavers for his report. Supervisor Spilman said, “We appreciate everything you do for our community, we really do. I am not sure, but the landing pattern is right over our house, and I hear more helicopters circling at my house than I ever have…”
“We are one of their better customers,” Director Deavers said. “Because of the way the weather works, we actually have a little bit of an advantage, because they can go to Vermont or they can go to Syracuse. So when it is snowing down in Pulaski and Adams, we can get them to go to Vermont. That actually allows us to utilize it more than other places. And while our volume is increasing, the acuity is also up quite a bit. We are seeing a lot more sick people… Fort Drum has actually become an asset for aero-medical. The approval process is a little bit longer, but it is free. The medics on it all have the same credentials as the folks from LifeNet, MercyFlight, they are all certified flight paramedics. We have to use them last, but we have been able to use them a couple times.”
“It’s a great asset, Supervisor Spilman said.
There were no further questions. The next meeting of the Town of Gouverneur Council will be held on Tuesday, February 14, 6 p.m., in the Town of Gouverneur Offices Building, 1227 US Highway 11, Gouverneur. For more information, call 315-287-2340.