Western Mass Emergency
Medical Services Committee, Inc.
Meeting:
Communications Committee
Date: June 6, 2002
Place: McCallum Building Living Room, CDH,
Northampton
Presiding: Brian Andrews, Chairperson
Called
to Order:
8:51 am
Adjourned: 10:14 am
Attendance:
Present
– Brian
Andrews, Anthony Cerini, Stephen Cote, Lisa Day, Thomas Dunphy, Seth Ellis,
Bernie Forgea, Charles Garrity, Dan Harrington, Jim Kupernik, Guy Manners, and
Jeff Rawson
Minutes: A motion was made to accept minutes as written. Mr. Cerini pointed out that an error was made in the Hampden East Project report. Ms. Herringshaw incorrectly reported that Region 1 as owns a radio at Mary Lane Hospital, when in actuality Region 1 now owns a radio at Wing Hospital. With the above corrections noted, the minutes were accepted and approved unanimously.
Update
on Resource Manual:
Discussion –
Mr.
Andrews reports that the manual is on hold awaiting updated state MCI
information. This will be tabled until
next month.
Action – Mr. Andrews to continue to update
committee.
Update
on Diversion Website:
Discussion –
Mr.
Cote reports that the system crashed this past week, which ultimately affected
the hard drive and a couple days worth of data was lost. In regards to the
connection through CMED, the purchase order is currently awaiting approval from
the city of Springfield. Mr. Controvitch expects that this will go through
without any problem. Although Mr. Controvitch is still pursuing a cable
connection, it appears that it will be a DSL connection.
Mr.
Andrews expressed concern that website has crashed and asked Mr. Cote is
dispatch services are still contacting all of the services. Mr. Cote reported
that they are all being called.
Action – Mr. Cote to update the committee on the
Diversion Website and the CMED
connection.
Hampden
East Project Update:
Discussion –
Mr.
Cote reports that the National Grid is anxious to move forward with this
project. Mr. Cote has spoken with Mr. Kosczinski and Mr. Marcus and has found
that most of the equipment is on their shelves. Currently, Mr. Marcus is
working on the licensing. Mr. Cote will
contact Mr. Marcus on a daily basis to be sure that he in continuing with the
project. Mr. Cote has also spoken with
Mr. Cull and told him to order the combiner. The first radio that will go in
will be the VHF one to replace the current Wing Hospital radio. As of this
meeting, there appears to be a problem with their current radio and Mr. Cote is
contacting people to look at it.
Mr.
Andrews asked Mr. Cote what the hold-up is with Mr. Marcus. Mr. Cote responded
that he has only spoken to him via voice mail or e-mail and feels that he has a
lot of other projects going on and is just letting ours slide. Mr. Cote is going to continue to call him to
get the project status.
Mr.
Andrews responded that this is an important lesson to learn from this contract
agreement; we need to be sure to put in deadlines in our agreements.
On
a good note, Mr. Cerini informed the committee that the National Grid is
supplying us with equipment at their own expense. Mr. Andrews received an e-mail from Mr. Cote regarding some type
of groundbreaking ceremony once this project is started. Mr. Cote thought that
it should be a public event. Mr.
Andrews feels that something could be done once the project is up and running,
but not too early as he feels that Mr. Marcus should not get any undeserved
public recognition.
Action: Mr. Cote to continue to contact Mr.
Marcus weekly and update the committee on project.
Update
on Springfield CMED Procedure Book:
Discussion –
Mr.
Cote has received a copy of the CMED book from Mr. Controvitch. Mr. Cote is
going to compile both his and Mr. Controvitchs’ together. He feels that this should be ready to
distribute by the end of the summer. Also, there is a new phone number at CMED
for cell phone users to call.
Action – Mr. Cote to continue to update the
committee on progress.
Becket
Project:
Discussion-
Mr. Kupernik reports that Verizon wants to use their own 35 page contract for this agreement. Mr. Cote reports that there has been a misunderstanding of the needs of Becket and the Region. This tower has not been built yet, nor are all of the agreements in place. Crown Communication is going to build this tower for Verizon, but their contract has expired. In the meantime, a letter of intent will be sent to Becket to insure them space on this tower. Mr. Andrews told Mr. Kupernik to wait a month and if he has not heard from them, let him know.
Action- Mr. Kupernik to continue to inform the committee on the Becket project.
State
Communications Committee Meeting:
Discussion-
Mr. Cote reported that the committee has had a meeting with stakeholders to discuss the funding that is coming down from CDC and DPH to go to local services. A lot of this money is going to go to epidemiology, but Mr. Prenney has reported that a small chunk is going to come to EMS communications. Mr. Cote reports that a steering advisory committee has been created for each of the two grants that are coming down. Mr. Prenney would like someone from the communications committee to be on both committees. Mr. Garrity reports that one of these committees has to do with dispatch and he and Mr. Ethier are currently coming up with a proposal for money; tentatively for some type of system to notify services of a large incident such as smallpox, etc. Once this proposal is complete, it will be delivered to Mr. Prenney and he will then take it to DPH. Mr. Forgea feels that this type of system should be able to notify all public health officials at the same time in the event of a large incident. Mr. Andrews seconded this, and feels that with these two steering committees they can address this. Mr. Andrews asked Mr. Cote and Mr. Garrity if anything had been mentioned about our communications problems with radios at this meeting, and they both stated that there wasn’t.
Mr. Cote then responded that he and a member of Boston EMS are in the process of requesting a proposal from a communications consultancy regarding completely revamping the statewide EMS communications system. DPH is looking for a list of problems and solutions and Mr. Prenney feels that there may be money for some of these projects.
Mr. Andrews stated that he has heard about the decon. trailers that are going to be distributed and radio money was supposed to come out of the same funding, but he has not heard anything about the radios, only the trailers. No one present has heard any more regarding the radios.
Action- None.
Public
Health Security and Bio Terrorism Response Act (2002):
Discussion-
Mr. Andrews reported that there is a new Act that has passed Congress and is awaiting signing by the President. Mr. Andrews is going to keep an eye on this as there is a section in this that has earmarked funding for ambulance personnel and emergency medical services (private or public).
Action- Mr. Andrews to continue
following this Act and inform the committee.
LEPC
Committee:
Discussion-
Mr. Garrity reports that he has recently given Trudy a list of all equipment from Franklin and Hampshire Counties to put into the database.
Mr. Andrews made the suggestion that perhaps Mr. Forgeas’ LEPC should hold a presentation for the two steering committees. Mr. Forgea and Mr. Cote feel that this may be what Mr. Prenney has in mind.
Finally, Mr. Garrity feels that ambulance services should be included in the Statewide Immobilization Plans, as there are some counties that are currently left out. All present agreed.
Action- None.
Next
Meeting:
The
next meeting will be held on Thursday, July 11, 2002, at 8:45 a.m. in East Wing 2
Conference Room (old child birth unit at CDH) Please note the change in date and location due to the July 4th
holiday.
Adjourn: A motion was made to adjourn at 10:14 am. This motion was
seconded and approved unanimously.
Lisa
Herringshaw, Recorder