Ambulance box donated to local EMS

CELINA - Mercer County EMS will soon receive a donated ambulance box to use as a simulator to train emergency medical technicians.

To house what EMS coordinator Matt Nietfeld calls a "hefty donation" from Horton Emergency Vehicles of Grove City, officials want to build a 1,200-square-foot addition onto the northwest corner of its Riley Street office in Celina. They plan to pay for the $185,000 addition exclusively with private and corporate donations.

The funding campaign is underway and has raised $16,000, Nietfeld and Rockford EMT Lisa Faust recently told Mercer County Commissioners. Faust and Nietfeld aim to have the building open this spring.

The patient simulator is essentially an ambulance without wheels or engine, Faust said. She noted that only two other training simulators are in the state.

"It's perfect for what we need because all we need is the box," Faust told the newspaper. "We don't need anything that travels on the road. So from a training standpoint, that's huge: Students will be able to experience that like it's a real call, a real response."

The county EMS is scheduled to retire one ambulance in the next three years, which would allow officials to use the box for EMT training in Celina. Faust didn't want to wait that long and contacted two Ohio ambulance manufacturers to see if they could help.

Horton officials said they had an ambulance box available that the county could have. The manufacturer, Faust said, is rewiring the box and adding LED interior lights. It should be ready for pickup in mid-February.

The county EMS, which has offered EMT training since the spring of 2014, aims to incorporate the patient simulator for hands-on training. Trainees are required to take 150 hours of training, spread out over two nights a week for four months, Nietfeld said.

"There's a ton of information that we need to teach and go over and learn," Nietfeld said.

The standard training helps trainees pass a national test and earn a license but doesn't include much real-world experience, Faust noted.

The simulator will be fully equipped like any active squad in the county.

"Operating in those cramped quarters (of the ambulance), you have two or three of you in the back and you all have specific things you're doing," Faust said.

Nietfeld said EMT trainees must participate in 10 EMS runs. However, they may not experience many different emergency situations, such as cardiac arrest, traumatic injuries or, what is rarely dealt with in the county, gunshot wounds.

"There's no way for us to dictate what those runs are," he said. "We'll be able to simulate all those things so all the big categories we'll be able to hit before they ever have to leave the classroom, and I think that's going to be invaluable."

"For many of us, we hadn't been in the back of an ambulance ... and so having the opportunity to have an ambulance simulator to practice those scenarios would be much more beneficial than practicing live," Faust added.

Nietfeld and Faust need a site to house the simulator and believe adding onto the EMS/EMA office is best.

The building, they said, would stock the ambulance box just like an in-service unit. Cameras would record the practice sessions and closed-circuit TVs would allow other students to watch various scenarios.

Fanning Howey Associates of Celina, Nietfeld said, will draft building plans and seek state permits while Tri-Star students would install the electronic equipment and hang drywall and put up siding.

The EMS is largely self-funded, with 90 percent of its revenue coming from billing for runs to Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance companies. About 10 percent of funding comes from a $2.50 per capita charge assessed to each township and municipality in the county.

With the last ambulance costing $208,000, the EMS doesn't have enough funds to pay for the addition and are seeking private and corporate donations.

"I think the funds are out there," Nietfeld told commissioners. "I think people are going to be willing to donate to it when they see the need."

Tax-deductible donations can be made to the Mercer County Civic Foundation, attention EMS patient simulator lab.

Commissioners generally supported the project. They'll contact other county officials to determine whether the EMS would have to pay prevailing wages since no county dollars would be spent on the project.

Mercer County EMS provides emergency service to the county's 40,814 residents in a 473 square mile area. It has 114 paid employees and volunteer paramedics, intermediates, basic and first responders based in four stations - Celina, Rockford, St. Henry and Coldwater - and operates 10 Advanced Life Support ambulances, Nietfeld said.