Saturday, May 12, 2007

Bosque Farms explores setting up EMS service with volunteer staff

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Bosque Farms Reacting to a need from the community, the Village of Bosque Farms is in the early stages of establishing a service that would respond to a variety of medical emergencies.

During an informational meeting Wednesday evening, about 10 residents interested in forming the village's first volunteer emergency medical service gathered together. Currently, Bosque Farms residents are being served solely by Living Cross Ambulance, which is based in Los Lunas.

Gayle Jones, the village's clerk-administrator, who is heading up the endeavor to establish and emergency medical service in Bosque Farms, said the village initially requested $75,000 from the State Legislature for a new medical rescue unit and equipment.

"When it went to the very first committee, they came back to us through our lobbyist and said that it wasn't enough, do your homework and come back with another figure," Jones said. "I did my homework ... and we were given $150,000."

While most of the fire departments in the county that provide rescue service have transport capable units, Jones said the vehicle the village gets will only be used to transfer patients to a Living Cross or Isleta ambulance during "life or limb" situations.

Jones, who has been an EMT and firefighter in Mountainair for more than 21 years, is also a certified EMS instructor-coordinator through the University of New Mexico and has volunteered her services to the village.

"We're just want to know if there is an interest in EMS," Jones said to those who attended the 30-minute meeting. "When the master plan committee did a survey a year ago ... one of the top priorities that came out of that survey was the need for an EMS for the village. But in order to do this, we need volunteers and commitment from those volunteers."

Jones said she and Fire Chief Spencer Wood have sat and talked about what it would take to establish a volunteer emergency medical service, but technicalities such as dispatch issues and boundaries are still being discussed and worked through. She did indicate that the village is, however, contemplating extending service to the new Town of Peralta.

Jeff Krum, a paramedic with Valencia-El Cerro fire district, said his department currently serves the Peralta area, but the county could possibly enact a mutual aid agreement with the village.

When asked by Jones how many would commit to eight hours a week for 10 weeks of first responder training, seven of the 10 people who attended Wednesday's meeting raised their hands. Jones said in order to have a class, which she hopes to begin in early summer, academy standards say at least eight people must be enrolled.

And of those who raised their hands, Jones was happily surprised that several people already had training. One person said she was a certified first responder, another is a trained EMT-Intermediate, there was one paramedic and two said they were registered nurses.

"First responders are going to be very limited in what they can do," Jones said. "They'll be able to do the bare-bone basics."

According to Jones, a first responder is trained in a little more than first aid knowledge, but not quite to the level of an EMT-Basic. They will be trained on how to get a patient stabilized.

Jones said to start an emergency medical service in the village, she would like to have a solid commitment from at least 15 volunteers to cover shifts throughout the week, at night and on the weekends. The village currently has $14,000 for EMS start-up funds that haven't been used.

"We are open to suggestions because we're all feeling our way as we go," Jones said. "This is brand new, and the main thing is that we don't want to be gung-ho and jump in there and start this and have it fail. I want to do it right, or not at all. We need to set it up right and consider all the angles and make sure that this can be a success."

Wood told the audience that his ultimate goal would be that the village's emergency medical service could one day be staffed with several paid personnel.

"But in order to do that, the village would need to figure out a way to generate some income to pay for that," Wood said. "I know we're trying to walk before we can crawl, but we've already discussed that and everyone is in favor of working towards that."

Bosque Farms Mayor Wayne Ake said he was encouraged to see the number of people who attended the meeting and said that this was just the first step in a long process.

"This is something I really thought our village wanted and our residents wanted and our legislators were very kind and generous," Ake said. "But that was the easy part, I'm finding out. We have some good people with a lot of knowledge."

Anyone who is interested in volunteering for the new emergency medical service in Bosque Farms and is willing to go through a 10-week first responder course can contact Gayle Jones at 869-2357.

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