09-19-11 Draft Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—SEPTEMBER 19, 2011 3 William Snoke stated that they look at what percentage of their calls are responded to in less than eleven minutes with the goal being to have an ambulance on the scene in less than 1 I minutes at least 90%of the time. In Arden Hills,that number runs between 95% and 98%. Dr. Charles Lick, Medical Director, Allina Medical Transportation, stated that he and his colleague, the Associate Medical Director, are both emergency physicians and they have a physician advisory council of emergency physicians from each of the Allina Iocations that patients are taken to. He explained that their job is to be responsible for the clinical quality care that is delivered to the patients; everything from drugs, equipment, medical protocols, and education which he believes they do very well. They have been very aggressive in adopting the "latest and greatest" treatment strategies and they have had great success in treating cardiac arrests. Cardiac arrest is a big problem in this country and strikes over 350,000 people with an average survival rate in most communities of only 5%. AMT has been part of the "Take Heart America" program which was an effort to simultaneously implement all the highly regarded treatment strategies from the 2005 American Heart Association guidelines to markedly improve the survival rate of cardiac arrests. This effort includes having Automatic External Defibrillators (AED) in the community, educating the public, widespread citizen CPR training, make sure first responders are doing the new high performance CPR, and getting the patient to a hospital that is a resuscitation center of excellence with therapeutic hypothermia, intensive care medicine, and 24/7 Cath labs. As a result, the cardiac survival rate has improved from 8 V2%to 19%. He further stated that they have placed over 1700 AED's in businesses, schools, and churches over the last ten years. They have also begun using a LUCAS device which is a mechanically powered CPR device; with one on each of • the 38 life support ambulances, 10 of their emergency departments, and ten in their Cath labs and Intensive Care Units. Based on the success of the "Take Heart America" program, the Medtronic Foundation has changed how they fund programs and will now focus on five expert groups around the country including the Minnesota Resuscitation Association based at the University of Minnesota. Councilmember Holmes questioned the difference in the training for the police, fire, and AMT staff. Dr. Lick responded that the AMT paramedics have the highest level of training, 1500 hours; the Lake Johanna Fire Department Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) have 130 hours of training; and the Sheriff's deputies have First Responder training which is a 40 hour course. Councilmember Holmes asked if all the AMT ambulance personnel are paramedics. Dr. Lick stated they are either paramedics or EMT's and added that there is at least one paramedic on each ambulance. Mayor Grant asked if the improved survival rate Dr. Lick referred to was aided by also having police and fire respond. Dr. Lick responded yes; dealing differently with cardiac arrest helped reduce some of the response time to less than 1 I minutes. He explained that the sooner you shock a patient with an AED, the better their chance of survival.