Mayo Regional Hospital Emergency Medical Services expands community paramedicine
DOVER-FOXCROFT — The Mayo Regional Hospital Emergency Medical Services (EMS) department is celebrating EMS Week from May 20-26 by expanding its community paramedicine program. Community paramedicine is a program where a physician can have a paramedic visit with a patient in a non-emergent situation to provide a variety of services including wound checks, lab work, and assisting patients with their medications and a variety of other similar services. The purpose of this program is to continue to provide high quality patient care outside of regular appointments and hospital admissions, and to cut down on preventable re-admissions to the hospital.
In addition, EMS department emergency medical technicians and Mayo nursing staff recently participated in a “Stop the Bleed” training. They are now certified to teach the general public how to effectively control life-threatening bleeding before EMS arrives. Mayo EMS will begin offering this class to community groups this summer.
Mayo EMS provides primary emergency medical services for 21 communities in Penobscot, Piscataquis and Somerset counties from three bases located on the Mayo campus, as well as in Dexter and at the Corinth Fire Station.
“During the last year we have answered 4,320 requests for services. Those services range from; 9-11 emergency calls that can involve patient transports of up to forty miles from the scene of the emergency to the hospital, to community paramedicine services, also up to forty miles from Mayo, transfers to Mayo to routinely as far away as Portland, Boston, Fort Kent and places in between,” said Brian Mullis, Mayo’s EMS director and a paramedic of the department. “We also stand by or assist in many community special events such as parades, the Whoopie Pie Festival and the Red Hot Dog Festival.”
Mayo EMS has 48 employees, 27 paramedics, 18 EMTs and three drivers that staff two ambulances in Dover-Foxcroft, one in Dexter and one in Corinth 24/7. They staff a second ambulance in Dexter from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. seven days a week.