AGNESS – The Agness Illahe Volunteer Fire Department, possibly the only such fire department in Oregon that is not tax funded, will soon be the only fire department in Curry County that will operate an ambulance service.

"We've been a rescue service all these years, but a rescue service cannot transport," Fire Chief Bill Scherbarth said. "To be able to transport you've got to become an ambulance service."

"When you are an hour from the hospital, you've got to do something," Scherbarth said.

The nearest hospital is Curry General in Gold Beach. Currently, Cal-Ore Life Flight ambulances must go the 30-plus miles along South Bank Rogue River Road to pick up someone needing to get to that hospital.

"If we roll to a scene, being a rescue service we have to sit on the scene. Being an ambulance service we can package that person instead of waiting for Cal-Ore," Scherbarth said. "We can gain an hour plus. It just gets our patients an hour or so quicker to the hospital."

Scherbarth said that in the past it was legal for the rescue service to pick up a patient and go halfway to Gold Beach and meet a Cal-Ore ambulance. But Oregon rules have changed, and that is no longer legal.

"When you live in Agness, you've got to deal with what you've got and get it done," Scherbarth said. "It's got to the point where rules and regulations and liability are such, it's got so we have to do it. So we're going to do it."

That requires emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and a properly equipped ambulance.

The fire department recently purchased an ambulance from Cal-Or, which has helped volunteers complete the certification process that will allow the department to be an ambulance service.

"We're non-tax based," Scherbarth said of the fire department. "We live on donations. This was costing money. We're total volunteers. We're not a fire district. We're probably about the only ones in state of Oregon not a fire district."

"Cal-Ore kicked in half the cost of the ambulance," he said. "That's the only way we survived. We rely on other districts to get fire trucks and that stuff. The city of Coos Bay just donated an attack truck to us. All of our equipment is real old, but it works good and gets the job done."

He said the winter population of the area is about 150.

Fundraising is an ongoing thing for the department without a tax base.

"We put on potlucks and steak feeds. Once a year we go out with a donation letter to landowners and residents of the area. They've been real good," Scherbarth said.

The fire chief says the department now has members who have completed EMT training.

"All volunteers, eight EMTs, 100 percent certified," he said. "We're down to just filling out the forms. Everything else we're done. We've got the machine, we've got the training, the personnel. It's just getting the i's dotted and the t's crossed."

He said the certification as an ambulance service should come in February.

"We have 15 fire department members active and eight of these 15 are EMTs," Scherbarth said.

EMTs are required to take a 50-hour basic course. Additional training will certify them as intermediate EMTs, with more training required to certify them as paramedics.

"I've got three intermediates, five basics. And 99.9 percent of the time we have at least one or maybe two intermediates on board," Scherbarth said.

The department's board of directors made the decision to become an ambulance service because they didn't want a patient to lie beside the road until an ambulance could get there.

"The directors said ‘No. We want to treat and then get them halfway to Gold Beach and meet Cal-Ore.' We could go 15 miles down the road, that much quicker to the hospital," Scherbarth said.

"We'll still continue to transport over to Cal-Ore some place between here and Gold Beach, then we can go back on line and be available for the community," he said.

Cal-Ore Life Flight has become the first ambulance company in the region to have its own Human Physiologic Simulator (HPS) training facility, with the acquisition of an adult HPS (SimMan) and infant HPS (SimBaby) manikin. The latest in advanced training tools for paramedics, nurses, physicians, and other medical personnel

Human Physiologic Simulators (HPS) are high-tech manikins that, through the magic of computers and compressors, can be programmed to breathe, talk, have heart attacks or become critically ill at the click of a mouse!

“Nine of our nurses and medics have undergone instructor training to run and program both manikins. The manikins are already in service training Cal-Ore Life Flight air medical and ground ambulance crews.” reported Joe Gregorio, Cal-Ore Life Flight’s General Manager.

According to Gregorio, the manikins come preprogrammed with patient scenarios that simulate a common problem such as chest pain or difficulty breathing. Because the manikin talks, generates a heart rhythm, breath sounds, and pulses, nurses and medics start with a basic assessment of the manikin, just as they would a real patient. The nurses and medics do not know where the computerized scenario will take them, so they must interact with the ‘patient’ in the moment, making interventions based on their assessment of the presenting complaint and current patient condition. Some scenarios are problematic, with patients developing dire, life-threatening complications.  All scenarios are designed to reproduce on demand those clinical situations that, heretofore, the staff could only see in a real patient. This means the staff can practice intervening for real problems in real patients using their usual medical equipment in a controlled environment, and gain the skills needed to care for the patient before actually having to do it on a real human.
If the nurse or medic does not make the correct intervention, the computer will sense the failure and the ‘patient’ will continue to deteriorate.
 
Skills training can be common skills – like starting an IV or taking blood pressure, or they can be complex, such as shocking a patient out of a lethal heart rhythm with a defibrillator or inserting a breathing tube. In the past, students only had access to training on a live human being at the time the event occurred. With an HPS manikin, a student can practice the skill 100 times before ever seeing it or having to respond to it on a real person.

With SimBaby, the only infant HPS manikin in Del Norte County, the nurses and medics have access to on-demand training in the skills necessary to care for critically ill or injured children, situations not commonly seen in this county.

 “Because of our voluntary accreditation with the Commission of Accreditation for Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS), we have assumed the obligation to train our staff to a standard that surpasses the requirements we previously needed to meet under our Oregon and California licensure. With the purchase of these manikins, we will be able to easily meet these standards.” Gregorio said.

CRESCENT CITY — A local air ambulance company recently received the highest level of accreditation in the industry.

Cal-Ore Life Flight, which keeps its airplanes at the Crescent City and Brookings airports, was granted a three-year accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS).

All air ambulance companies must meet Federal Aviation Administration, state and federal requirements to fly patients for medical care. The commission's standards are higher than the government's, said Dan Brattain, Cal-Ore president.

This top-most accreditation is optional in California and Oregon, but attaining it ensures a company has met the highest standards in the industry, Brattain said.

"You have to review [CAMTS] standards and not only write new policies, but you have to demonstrate you also live by the guidelines," he said.

Some states now require air ambulance companies to receive this accreditation, he said.

Cal-Ore's five planes pick up patients from small clinics in Humboldt, Del Norte and Curry counties and fly them to facilities with higher-level care.

Of the nearly 500 air ambulance companies in the country, only about 140 have received this top-most accreditation.

"It's not common because it's difficult to achieve," said Darryn Ballance, who does community relations for Cal-Ore.

Cal-Ore applied for the accreditation almost two years ago. The company's staff of 70 worked to meet standards, and after inspection, the commission's board of directors approved Cal-Ore's full accreditation.

To reach the highest standards, Cal-Ore registered nurses went through more training, and satellite phones were installed in all of the planes, Brattain said. Departmental leaders must meet quarterly to improve management and internal coordination, he added.

Reach Michelle Ma at mma@triplicate.com.

Cal-Ore Life Flight recently received air ambulance accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS).  CAMTS is dedicated to improving the quality of patient care and safety of the ambulance transport environment. An internationally recognized organization, CAMTS is ranked as the leader in establishing air ambulance standards over and above FAA, State and Federal regulations.

Following a two-year preparation process by Cal-Ore, CAMTS surveyors spent two days completing an intensive site inspection of the company’s operations.  A full review by the CAMTS Board of Directors determined that Cal-Ore Life Flight demonstrates their ability to deliver service in compliance with CAMTS high standards and granted a three-year full accreditation.

Of an estimated 500 air ambulance services nationwide, less than 30% are CAMTS accredited.  Cal-Ore Life Flight is now one of the approximately 140 accredited services.

Cal-Ore President, Dan Brattain said, “This is quite an achievement for a small, unsubsidized company like ours. It clearly reaffirms what an outstanding group of dedicated employees we are fortunate to have, and our overall commitment to our patients.”

For more information, log on to camts.com or cal-ore.com.

If Ferrari made an SUV, it would look like the Cal-Ore Life Flight plane.

At least, that's how David Ravetti put it. And he should know -- he's the pilot.

”It's a very fast, very quick airplane,” said Cal-Ore Life Flight President Dan Brattain. And by November, the Piper Cheyenne twin turboprop that serves as an ambulance for Southern Oregon, Del Norte and Humboldt counties, will be stationed at Eureka's Murray Field for the first time.

The plane flies patients from rural hospitals to those in larger areas that can handle more critical patients, such as the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, the UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco, hospitals in Redding, Santa Rosa, and occasionally as far as Portland, Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Of the 25 to 30 medical flights that depart Humboldt County's hospitals monthly, Cal-Ore Life Flight handles between 60 and 70 percent of them, Brattain said. Santa Rosa and Redding-based flight companies take care of the rest, he said.

But the planes that serve Humboldt County currently take off from Crescent City, adding 13 to 14 minutes' time to a trip.

”The health care in Humboldt County is good, so when (patients) are on the plane, they're very sick,” Brattain said. “For them to order the flight, they can't get the care here.”

But taking a sick person in the air, in an area smaller than the back of an ambulance, has its difficulties.

”It's really a challenge because of the altitude and weather,” said Kathleen Peterson, a registered nurse who oversees patients during flights.

Especially the weather, Brattain said. Even if a hospital has a bed for the patient, bad weather can halt the expedition. “The weather's either good enough or not (and) we can either fly or not,” Brattain said.

And pilots must check their emotions at the door and not get pushed into flying under questionable circumstances because of a patient's condition, Brattain said. That and being ready to go at any moment can lead to stressful days.

”If you're on duty, you're on duty,” he said. “You have to be geared and ready to go when that call comes in.”

Most patients need a high-level of care and have brain injuries, are infants or children, or have burns, Peterson said.

But the payoff is well worth it, he said. “It's very rewarding to get someone to a place where they can get the medical care they need,” Brattain said.

Karen Wilkinson can be reached at 441-0514 or kwilkinson@times-standard.com

Cal-Ore recently purchased their 4th Piper Cheyenne II aircraft, bringing the total fleet size to five.

Cal-Ore's President, Dan Brattain, said "This aircraft will greatly assist our growing operations and provide our community with more efficient service. The jet-prop aircraft are a much faster and a more comfortable form of transportation for our air ambulance patients."

The fifth aircraft, formerly owned by celebrity Wayne Newton, has already proven to be a real asset for the company.

As part of an ongoing effort to assist local volunteer agencies, Cal-Ore Life Flight recently donated over $4,700.00 to Curry County Fire departments.

According to Cal-Ore President, Dan Brattain, “Our community is so fortunate to have such a dedicated group of professional and well trained volunteers. These local community members greatly assist our service in providing the highest quality Emergency Medical Services.” Brattain noted that the fire departments play an integral role in assisting with accident scenes, lifting assistance, additional help with critical patients, and first responses.

Cal-Ore Life Flight sent checks to all volunteer agencies in their 911 response areas, which included Harbor Fire, Brookings Fire, Cape Ferello Fire, Pistol River Fire, Winchuck Fire, Gold Beach Fire, Agness Fire, and Ophir Fire.

Joe Gregorio, General Manager of Cal-Ore said, “Many times these volunteers are taken for granted. They leave their jobs, homes, kids birthday parties, and other important functions to respond whenever asked. We truly appreciate all that they do; they do not get nearly enough credit.”

Cal-Ore also provides on-going training to these agencies along with medical supplies and equipment to assist them as needed.

Please contact Darryn Ballance for more information at 541-469-7911 ext 110.