Bucktail Medical Center adds ambulance service: small hospital, special capabilities
By Christopher Miller
SOUTH RENOVO, PA – In the coming weeks, Bucktail Medical Center will be debuting a new service to its repertoire of growing assistance: ambulance.
Through a $1,000,000 USDA grant and a $300,000 low-interest loan through SEDA-COG, one of the many projects on its list earmarked for 2023 is an ambulance.
The program will allow for one ambulance, which is already on order and is awaiting final inspection, to be fully equipped and staffed for 24/7, round-the-clock emergency care.
“The ambulance will be at BMC 24/7 and the paramedic could work in our ER, go into the community and conduct follow-up visits, but also be able to respond to local calls,” said hospital CEO Timothy Reeves. “When we learned that Station 29 might not continue ambulance services, we changed that part of our grant application and wrote it in the grant to purchase an ambulance.”
Along with the ambulance, BMC decided that they can do 911 service through county Communications. “The next step for us is to meet with the local municipalities to discuss the plan with them, and have letters for them to pick us as being a provider for emergency services,” said Tim.
For Tim and BMC, the need for a local EMS in the western end of the county is there.
“For call volume, we are around at least one call a day, but some days we have none, others we have a few, it’s unpredictable,” said Tim. “The need is there for us to become ALS (Advanced Life Support) certified because the only options for that service are Lock Haven EMS and Goodwill Hose Company Ambulance, but they’re even a ways away from us.”
The big challenge, Tim says, is staffing.
“We held a meeting at the beginning of the year open to all licensed and certified emergency medical responders to explain the program, and as a result we signed up seven EMTs and recruited some nursing staff who work in the emergency feldand can respond before patient comes to he hospital, similar to a paramedic,” Tim explained. With the applications, we believe we can staff a schedule here, an actual, workable schedule and we can pull the project over the finish line.”
As with some calls additional care is necessary, such as Lifeflight or Medevac to other hospitals such as Geisinger Danville or Mount Nittany, but as Tim says, the more that can be done at BMC, the better the patient outcome.
“On any given day our ER is staffed with one physician, 1one LPN, and one RN, and those three people deal with whatever comes in the door,” Tim said. “Those three people must be prepared for whatever walks through the door, and we recruit people with great experience and skills for the only in-patient bed hospital in the county.”
Aside from the fully staffed, fully stocked ambulance, Bucktail Medical Center is looking at infrastructure upgrades, roof replacement, heating/boiler/air conditioning replacements for equipment still using the original 1979 boilers, cardiac monitors, new handicapped accessible doors, and the possibility of a mobile CT scanner.
“We are really trying to move forward as fast as we can to serve our community and those around us,” Tim said.
