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Thanks to a donation of more than $44,000 from the Fremont-Rideout Foundation, the Penn Valley Fire Department's two ambulances will soon be equipped with wireless EKG machines and PV paramedics will be trained in their use.
As a result, the residents in the Penn Valley Fire Protection District of western Nevada County, including PV and Lake Wildwood, will be closer in time and distance to advanced life-saving cardiac treatments so vital in the initial period after a heart attack.
“Time is heart muscle, and the first 90 minutes are critical,” said Dr. Robert Plass, chief medical officer of Fremont-Rideout Health Group, the nonprofit community health care system that operates Rideout Memorial Hospital.
In the absence of EKG capability, Penn Valley paramedics have had to transport heart attack victims to a nearby hospital for stabilization and then often to a Sacramento hospital for treatment, adding more than an hour from home to heart-
saving.
The installation of the new wireless machines allows for the diagnosis and treatment plan to be put in place by the emergency and cardiac teams at the hospital while the ambulance is still en route, so the appropriate clinical team is already standing by when the patient comes through the door.
Eric Morgenroth, a clinical educator for Rideout Memorial emergency department, will train 14 paramedics in a multi-day course scheduled for completion by mid-March, after installation of the EKG machines.
The curriculum was developed in consultation with Capt. Clayton Thomas, paramedic and QI coordinator for the district, and Dr. George Broder, who heads the Fremont-Rideout Specialty Care Center in Penn Valley.
It was Broder, who is board-certified in both internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases, who saw the need for the ambulance EKG machines and proposed the donation and facilitated the new cooperation between the fire protection district and Fremont-Rideout.
As a result, the residents in the Penn Valley Fire Protection District of western Nevada County, including PV and Lake Wildwood, will be closer in time and distance to advanced life-saving cardiac treatments so vital in the initial period after a heart attack.
“Time is heart muscle, and the first 90 minutes are critical,” said Dr. Robert Plass, chief medical officer of Fremont-Rideout Health Group, the nonprofit community health care system that operates Rideout Memorial Hospital.
In the absence of EKG capability, Penn Valley paramedics have had to transport heart attack victims to a nearby hospital for stabilization and then often to a Sacramento hospital for treatment, adding more than an hour from home to heart-
saving.
The installation of the new wireless machines allows for the diagnosis and treatment plan to be put in place by the emergency and cardiac teams at the hospital while the ambulance is still en route, so the appropriate clinical team is already standing by when the patient comes through the door.
Eric Morgenroth, a clinical educator for Rideout Memorial emergency department, will train 14 paramedics in a multi-day course scheduled for completion by mid-March, after installation of the EKG machines.
The curriculum was developed in consultation with Capt. Clayton Thomas, paramedic and QI coordinator for the district, and Dr. George Broder, who heads the Fremont-Rideout Specialty Care Center in Penn Valley.
It was Broder, who is board-certified in both internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases, who saw the need for the ambulance EKG machines and proposed the donation and facilitated the new cooperation between the fire protection district and Fremont-Rideout.
