NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Fire Chief Steven Beer spoke to the city council on Tuesday about a training program his department will start soon.
"Starting Feb. 1, for a six month time period, we're going to be doing a pilot study with our first responder program," Beer said. "Right now, all your firefighters are EMT certified, Emergency Medical Technician certified. There's one level above that, basically, an EMT-A advanced program. That allows us to do a few different medications, use different types of equipment and medications. This pilot study is going to definitely have an impact on our citizens. Hopefully, we have some positive outcomes. Back in 2017, when I arrived in Hutchinson, your fire department was doing 50% of the skills allowed under their EMT licenses. Five years later, we're doing 100% of the skills allowed under the Kansas licensure of our EMT program."
Captain Rebecca Mendoza is going to lead the training program to take it to the next level, but every firefighter can already do certain skills.
"As an EMT, you're able to do these basic life support skills, which gives you a chance to give medications," Mendoza said. "For a cardiac, you can give nitro and aspirin. For those opioid overdoses, we're giving naloxone and for breathing difficulty, we are giving DuoNeb. I found out that 90% of our calls that we go on that are medical, we are there approximately seven to eight minutes before EMS arrives."
The difference between an EMT and an EMT-A is in the scope of other interventions they can do. It's the next natural step in the progression for those who already have the EMT training.
"It's advanced life support, which involves being able to start IVs, it's more invasive," Mendoza said. "Being able to give more medications that go through the IV for our critical patients. We need to make sure that we're helping them and helping the citizens as quickly as we can. At one point, we just did vitals."
EMT-A is the level between EMT and paramedic and it's particularly important in rural areas where response times may be even a greater difference than what is experienced here in the city of Hutchinson. There is no additional cost to taxpayers for firefighters to receive the additional training. The reason it is a pilot program is that they want to take a look at the data after six months to see if it is really making a difference in patient outcomes.
CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.