Many Central New Yorkers might have had to be cared for by emergency medical staff in their homes or after an accident. On Wednesday, it was the EMS workers themselves who were cared for. Crouse Hospital put on a barbeque picnic lunch for any area’s EMS providers. Doctor Michael Jorolemon, Crouse’s EMS Integration Officer has been in the field himself. He says EMS work is very different than caring for a patient in the hospital’s emergency room.
“It’s not like being the ED [Emergency Doctor] where everything is nice and clean, you get in a lot of spaces,” Jorolemon said. “You could go to someone’s house that is collapsed in their bathroom; you can’t even get the door opened to get in, carrying people downstairs or up out of ravines or off big cranes or machinery. It’s a totally different environment to provide medical care in those special environments that can be very challenging.”
He emphasizes the importance, however, of their work in figuring out the best way to care for a patient.
“It gives you the opportunity to see the patient in their home environment, or wherever the incident occurred,” Jorolemon said. “So you have a whole different perspective on what’s going on with that patient, where they are coming from, which may have attributed to the reason why you got called in the first place.”
Crouse offers a room for emergency workers to rest or escape from the elements, if needed. Steve Friedman with AMR Ambulance is finding some recent changes that make the job that much more challenging.
“So I definitely found that as of late we have had an influx in drug overdoses whether it be spike or other drugs,” Friedman said. “We have definitely had to balance between that and medical emergencies. But, I think that we have done a good job in making sure that everybody in the community is able to get the services they need from AMR.”
He appreciates the relationship they have with Crouse and other hospitals. For the month of August, any emergency workers can come into Crouse hospital and receive a complementary slushie as a thank you for their work in the field.
