Geauga County – Throughout 2013, University Hospitals (UH) Geauga Medical Center has donated equipment and supplies to police and fire departments throughout Geauga County to enable their emergency services teams to more effectively stabilize traumatic injury and illness victims in the field.
With the goal of outfitting every municipality by the end of the year, UH Geauga Medical Center has purchased state-of-the-art LUCAS™ chest compression systems or cardiac monitors for the county’s EMS teams to utilize in cardiac arrest scenarios. “LUCAS is a battery-powered device that delivers continuous CPR compressions at a consistent rate,” says Dan Ellenberger, NREMT-P, Director of Emergency Services, University Hospitals. The system facilitates consistent blood flow from the moment it is activated.
The devices are especially needed in communities with smaller EMS teams that are located farther away from UH Geauga Medical Center. “LUCAS frees up a paramedic from having to do strenuous manual CPR for the 20 or more minutes it can take to arrive at the hospital from our community,” says Scott A. Hildenbrand, Fire Chief, Hambden Township. “The unit allows an additional responder to focus on other critical tasks like clearing the individual’s airway and starting an IV.”
UH Geauga Medical Center has also provided every Geauga County police department with bleeding control kits, which it replenishes each time its contents are used in a trauma situation. “We worked with the hospital to assemble kits that contain Combat Application Tourniquets (CAT), chest seals, bleeding control agents, scissors, gauze, bandages and surgical gloves,” says Ellenberger. “The kits are now in every police car in Geauga County and we’re in the process of putting them in all of the ambulances.”
University Hospitals’ collaboration with Geauga County emergency services teams extends well beyond donated equipment and supplies. “UH Geauga Medical Center and members of the UH Disaster Preparedness Institute come to our station once a month to provide training for our people, and they trained us on LUCAS,” says Chief Hildenbrand, who is also the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy. “From both the law enforcement and the EMS sides, they have always been there when we’ve needed them. Our partnership benefits the entire county.”
As an accredited Chest Pain Center and Trauma Center, UH Geauga Medical Center works with UH Disaster Preparedness Institute to empower the county’s police, fire and EMS units to create better outcomes for patients with sudden cardiac arrest, acute coronary syndromes and traumatic injuries. “Our collaboration with Geauga County Sheriff Daniel McClelland, Chief Deputy Hildenbrand and their teams made clear the need for us to provide them with the LUCAS CPR devices, heart monitors and bleeding control kits,” says M. Steven Jones, President, UH Geauga Medical Center. “Our teamwork is helping every community’s emergency services team to respond and save lives in the field faster and better than ever.”
