Upstate provides EMS training for Cayuga County providers

SYRACUSE — Upstate University Hospital on May 22 offered free training to emergency-medical service (EMS) providers in Cayuga County in what the hospital called “one of the largest EMS training efforts undertaken by the hospital outside of Onondaga County.

Upstate has a regional mission to serve the entire Central New York region, Dr. Derek Cooney, director of Upstate’s Fellowship Program for EMS and Disaster Medicine, told reporters on May 17 at Upstate’s Community campus in Syracuse.

“This is [the] first time where we’re going to focus and partner with a county to ensure that that mission is successfully delivered,” Cooney said.

The hospital “did some outreach” because it knows members of the regional EMS community and it just came together, Cooney said.

The training at the Auburn Holiday Inn included presentations on Upstate’s EMS Physician Response Team and Mercy Flight Central Air Ambulance.

The presentations also focused on how to take care of an obese patient before they arrive at the hospital and the importance of conducting a quick assessment of stroke patients, and how stroke care differs from hospital to hospital, according to an Upstate news release about the training.

Cayuga County has about 360 people working as EMS providers, according to Upstate. Some are paid, but many are volunteers, who live in rural areas that make up most of the county’s 720 square miles, the hospital added.

That’s “challenging” geography in which to provide programming to EMS providers, where many would have to travel significant distances to receive such training, officials have told Upstate University Hospital.

Cayuga County providers have training that’s provided by the state and the county, Brian Dahl, director of emergency-medical services for Cayuga County Emergency Management, said while speaking with reporters.

“But we don’t get the expertise training from University Hospital, so we have partnered up with University Hospital to get some expertise training,” Dahl said.

That’s why Upstate and Cayuga County officials worked on a plan to bring programming to Cayuga County, the hospital said.

The May 22 training session focused on “stroke services, pediatric trauma, and some other general medical issues,” Cooney said.

Cayuga County EMS providers are handling a lot more cardiac and stroke patients, Dahl said.

“The early recognition is huge for a patient’s outcome, so we can get these people back home where they belong and not into nursing homes,” Dahl said.

In Dahl’s eyes, the importance of the program was getting the specialty training “at our doorstep.”

The EMS providers participating didn’t “have to travel to University Hospital, or go to Utica, or go to Geneva to get these classes that we need,” Dahl said.

The hospital says it will consider additional educational programming in other outlying communities and is examining the use of technology to provide some training through teleconferencing, Upstate said.

Upstate University Hospital is the area’s only Level I trauma center and provides certification and a continuing medical-education program to more than 700 EMS professionals annually, the hospital said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com