Some $3.2 million from DMV vehicle surcharge is returned to local emergency-medicine organizations to be spent on rescue equipment and training classes.

By STEPHANIE TWINING

Date published: 11/8/2004

Emergency medical technicians with Culpeper County's Little Fork Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company are now able to send more patient information from their ambulance to the nearest hospital.

Spotsylvania County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services upgraded the advanced life-support equipment on all 22 of its ambulances for a fraction of what it would have cost.

And the Fredericksburg Fire Department was able to buy new temperature-control devices that the state requires for medications kept in firetrucks.

This was possible because of the $239,535 the Fredericksburg region was awarded through grants from the state's Rescue Squad Assistance Fund.

This year, the fund returned a total of $3.2 million to Virginia localities.

Tina Skinner, executive director of the Rappahannock EMS Council, said the fund plays a very important role in the emergency-medicine community.

"The rescue-squad assistance program ensures that our agencies have the funds to do what they need to do," Skinner said. "It ensures that we have a quality EMS program in our region."

For Little Fork, a rescue company that has limited resources and often finds itself more than 15 minutes away from the nearest hospital, the $14,160 it received in grant awards will make a difference in its rescue capabilities.

The squad upgraded two defibrillators to get the 12-lead capability, a piece of equipment that provides more information about a patient's heart.

"It's so important to get patient diagnosis information quickly and accurately as possible," said Danielle Ketcham, Little Fork's public information officer. "This new equipment allows us to send more pertinent patient information to the hospital so they can be more prepared."

Little Fork also purchased a new stretcher that has a higher weight limit and doesn't have to be lowered to the ground and then lifted into the ambulance.

"It definitely improves patient safety as well as the safety of the EMT," Ketcham said.

Spotsylvania Fire and Rescue was awarded $25,000 to put toward its three-year project of replacing all the cardiac monitors with upgraded models.

According to Assistant Director Don Taylor, the older models are being phased out of use, so maintenance for that equipment won't be available much longer.

"Plus, it makes one piece of equipment standardized throughout the entire county," Taylor said.

Date published: 11/8/2004