Western Mass Emergency
Medical Services Committee, Inc.
Meeting:
Communications Committee
Date: April 5, 2001
Place: Living Room, McCallum Building, CDH,
Northampton
Presiding: Jeff Rawson, Co-Chairperson
Called
to Order: 8:45 am
Adjourned: 10:25 am
Attendance:
Present
- Brian Andrews, Anthony Cerini, Stephen
Cote, M.J. Dinneen, Bernard Forgea, David Goodrich, Daniel Harrington, David
Keefe, James Kupernik, Guy Manners, Jeff Rawson, Kathleen Rider, Michael Zlogar
Minutes: Minutes
distributed and read. The motion regarding provision of a Recording Secretary
was that one would be provided by WMEMS. Move to strike the words "to investigate" from minutes.
Due to difficulties in electronic distribution we will send out all
correspondence and minutes by US Post as policy.
CMED
Project:
Discussion -
Jim Controvitch has not yet provided the data requested by the Comm. Mr. Cote spoke to him on 4/3 and was told that it should be done this week. Discussion established that that he had committed to delivering it the 1st week of March.
Action- Committee
will make a formal appointment to collect this data ASAP. Mr. Andrews will make this call.
Recording
Secretary:
Chief Coulombe: We must have
a secretary. We are getting no support
from ExecCouncil. We must have an
organized history of minutes and motions, a system where we can refer back to
coherent minutes.
Mr. Andrews: ExCo felt it was
impossible to dedicate Lisa to this meeting.
The feeling was that a staff member (Mr. Cote) was already in attendance
and that this was enough.
This led to discussion re:
frustration and lack of focus and direction and lack of support from ExCo. Mr. Andrews replied that he felt insulted at
the suggestion of lack of ExCo support. He states that the Council considers
this Committee to be very important and will do what is necessary to provide
for it.
Action – Arrangements
will be made for next meeting for a secretary and a recording device.
Comm.'s Survey:
Discussion –
Mr. Cote provided a condensed
summary of the survey results so far received.
This reflected the usage base, among ambulance services, for each of the
methods of contacting MedCon and the signal quality, undifferentiated by County.
There was discussion on the
lack of response (121 of 267 sent; 20 of 56 amb svc's). Mr. Cote was questioned on efforts to
contact them. He stated he had made a
number of phone calls as had Ms. Rider with limited results. He noted that many of the contact numbers
given in the surveys were at variance with those in the Reg'l Database.
Discussion suggested
different plans to promote a better response and Chief Coulombe asked had we
not agreed to send minutes to these agencies to keep us fresh in their mind?
The Committee requests that
the Executive Director send a letter to all non-responding ambulance services
requesting that they return the survey, emphasizing the importance to our EMS
mission.
Action - Mr. Cote will assure that minutes are sent to ambulance services.
State Committee:
State Committee met on 3/28
in Barnstable. Chairman announced that
funds were available from DPH for a statewide communications study. However the
Comm. elected to seek $42k of those funds for radios, installation to link
CMED's and Communications Control Points to the MSP 800MHz trunk system to
accomplish the statewide link.
Committee also voted to request approval of this access from MSP. It is
not clear if OEMS will accept either action.
Chief Zlogar strongly
objected to the 800-corridor plan in both concept and as an expenditure. He feels that this will in no way benefit
W.Mass because of the incomplete structure of the 800-system in our
Region. Discussion revealed sentiment
that the Regions should have been consulted before this decision was made; that
perhaps this money could be better spent out here. Mr. Andrews cautioned we should not object too strenuously until
we have more information to make a responsible statement.
Mr. Forgea made a motion that
the Committee will send a carefully crafted letter expressing our concerns that
we, the Regions, are not being adequately consulted with regard to our needs
and the applicability of solutions that are proposed on the state level. Motion
passed with 1 opposed.
Action - Letter is to be drafted by Capt. Keefe to the State
Communications Comm. with cc to Brad Prenney, Louise Goyette, and our local
Legislators.
State Telecom Plan:
Discussion –
Chief Zlogar requested that Mr. Cote generate a summary of the existing Mass. EMS Telecommunications Plan for the use of the Regional Committee.
Meeting time change:
Discussion –
There was discussion of changing the date or time of this meeting so as to avoid conflict with various other Reg'l meetings, especially the Executive Council (there are at least 4 ExCo members on the R.C.C.). It was decided that our meetings will remain on the 1st Thurs of the month but will begin at 09:00 instead of 08:30
Action - ExCo members will endeavor to change the time of that
meeting so as not to conflict with ours.
Project funding
opportunity:
Mr. Cote relayed from the
Exec Dir that some funding ($10k-$12k?) might be available for a communications
improvement project that will have a large impact on "delivery of patient
care". This proposed project would
have to be developed in the next few weeks in order to fit within the fiscal
year. There will probably be
competition from other areas. He
proposed an upgrade of coverage in the eastern Hampden County area with a link
to the Springfield net and using that site to link to the Berkshire Net via the
Franklin Net by microwave. Mr. Forgea proposed that we seek funding for our own
Regional Diversion/Disaster Notification program. Chief Coulombe proposed that
we purchase Logging Recorders for Mary Lane and Wing Hospitals.
Mr. Keefe made a motion that
a cost analysis and proposal for each of these projects be developed. Motion
passed.
Action - Mr. Cote will work on these and update Chairs on
progress.
Next Meeting:
Stephen J. Cote, Recorder