Western Mass Emergency
Medical Services Committee, Inc.
Meeting:
Communications Committee
Date: September 5, 2002
Place: McCallum Building Living Room, CDH,
Northampton
Presiding: Brian Andrews, Chairperson
Called
to Order: 8:53 am
Adjourned: 9:48 am
Attendance:
Present
– Brian
Andrews, Anthony Cerini, Stephen Cote, Bernie Forgea, and Jim Kupernik
Minutes: A motion was made to accept minutes as written. This motion was seconded and the minutes were accepted and approved unanimously.
Update
on Diversion Website:
Discussion –
Mr.
Cote reports that the phone line is not in yet at CMED. Mr. Cote has spoken
with Mr. Controvitch and he in turn has contacted the city treasurer’s office.
The paperwork seems to have been misplaced, and they are looking for it. Mr. Cote added that logging the diversions
at all hours are getting tiring. Also, he is not quite sure that this site is an
accurate portrayal of diversions, as nobody has been checking it. As Mr.
Andrews is also getting frustrated with this project, he will speak with Ms.
Moriarty to find out when the next Ambulance Commissioner’s meeting will be
held.
Mr.
Andrews also added that he is going to check into a backup radio system at
Baystate.
Action – Mr. Cote to update the committee on the
Diversion Website and the CMED
connection.
Mr. Andrews to research the next Ambulance Commissioners’ Meeting, and
report
back to the committee.
Hampden
East Project Update:
Discussion –
Mr.
Cote reports that all of the hardware on the mountain has been installed and
checked. They do want to run one more test on the antenna lead just to be sure
they are all set. They are currently awaiting the phone connections on Cottage
Street. This also needs to go through the city of Springfield. Mr. Cote stated
that he was unable to call Mr. Controvitch in the week prior to this meeting,
so he will touch base with him ASAP. Mr. Andrews asked if the issue was that
they (Springfield) need to make the arrangements for the hookup. Mr. Cote
responded that as they are paying the bill out of their budget, they need to
order the project. Also, they have a regular contract with the special services
department at Verizon and need to go through them. Mr. Andrews asked if Sgt.
Prairie had anything to do with this project, as he had given us the approval
to go ahead with this some time ago. Mr. Cote responded that once the project
is ordered by the city, Sgt. Prairie will be the one to oversee the
installation. Mr. Andrews asked who in the city was ultimately responsible for
the ordering of the project, and Mr. Cote stated that Mr. Controvitchs’ office
has to come up with the purchasing order.
Also, Mr. Controvitch has requested that we write up a letter (a letter
of understanding) explaining that they (CMED) will be providing the phone lines
out of their budget, therefore, WMEMS will not be held responsible for any
problems with the lines. Mr. Cote stated that he would try to draft this
document. Mr. Forgea asked why Mr. Controvitch couldn’t draft this document as
he is the one who wants it. Mr. Cote responded that he and Mr. Controvitch
would work on it together so it would be agreed on by both sides. Anything that
is drafted will ultimately go before Executive Committee to be sure that it is
agreed upon.
Mr.
Andrews asked what was currently up and working right now on the mountain. Mr.
Cote stated that the VHF radio with the link to Wing is working, and in use daily.
There were some difficulties a few weeks ago regarding services stating that
they couldn’t get through. They could hear all of the other ambulances in the
state but still not get through. After checking this out, it is believed that
the re-set button was not getting hit after the previous call, therefore they
were hearing all this other traffic, and were picking up the CMED handset;
instead of the other handset. Mr. Cerini did some tests with this, and this is
also the conclusion that he came to. Mr. Cerini is wondering if there should be
some type of light or buzzer to signify which phone is ringing in. Mr. Cote
believes a light would work the best at this hospital.
Mr.
Andrews asked if the CMED radios have been tested, and Mr. Cote stated that
they have been tested and are ready to go once the phone lines are installed.
They have also located the connection points on Cottage Street when they are
ready for installation.
Finally,
Mr. Andrews asked if Mr. Cote had checked into UPS for the radio. Mr. Cote
reports that Wilbraham Fire is going to have a 12-volt battery backup in
theirs. In our contract with the National Grid, it has been offered that we can
plug into their standby generator. The problem with this is that according to
some of their personnel, there is a 20-30 second period before the generator
spools up. With this lapse of time, we could lose all of our programming.
Therefore, Mr. Cote believes that we should put a battery in it. Also, he would like to contact Mr.
Butterfield to see what he suggests.
Mr. Andrews and Mr. Cerini would like to find out how much these
batteries draw, just to be sure that they will serve our purpose.
Mr.
Andrews asked Mr. Cote if the radios are being inspected regularly. Mr. Cote
said that they are not, and feels that they should, but believes that Executive
Committee didn’t want the region to get involved with the maintenance plan. Mr.
Andrews isn’t suggesting a maintenance plan, but feels that someone could drive
up regularly to make sure that there are no rodents getting into the equipment,
etc. Mr. Cote said that this is definitely an option, and can contact Mr.
Eastman to see if any of his employees could do this.
As
a side note, Mr. Cote told the committee that he has the old Wing radio: a
Micor radio. Mr. Andrews responded that he also has one, and if they put them
together he could probably get his father to combine the two to make one
working radio.
Action: Mr. Cote to contact Mr. Controvitch about
the progress of these phone lines.
Mr. Cote to update committee on “letter of understanding” for Mr.
Controvitch.
Mr. Cote to contact Mr. Butterfield re: backup power for radio.
Mr. Cote to contact Mr. Eastman re: checking radios regularly for
condition.
Update
on Springfield CMED Procedure Book:
Discussion –
Mr.
Cote reports that nothing else has been done with this book: on neither his nor
Mr. Controvitchs’ end. Mr. Cote questions whether any of the materials in this
procedure book will be implemented anyway. Three times this summer he sent
memos to AMR Communications, and they all disappeared with the operators not
having seen any of them. Included in these memos was one stating that Mr. Cote
was going to be on vacation and everyone was to call the WMEMS office to log
diversions between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. None of the
dispatchers had even seen this memo, and the only reason they knew he was going
on vacation was because one of the operators called him the night before he
left. Mr. Andrews asked Mr. Cote if he
thought that this was a problem, and he stated that it absolutely was a
problem, but there is no motivation for any change on the AMR end.
Mr.
Andrews emphatically stated that maybe the motivation for them would be moving
CMED, and charging AMR $4.00 per patch. Mr. Andrews is distressed that they
would not put any energy into this procedure book because it wouldn’t be
implemented. There is a serious problem with the operations here. Mr. Andrews
added that he would speak with Mr. Manchino and see if he has had any luck
receiving the financial records from the city regarding CMED.
Mr.
Cote added that he has seen discrepancies on logged diversions, and he has even
been at AMR when calls have gone unanswered due to the lack of staffing at dispatch.
Mr.
Andrews is going to find out who is in charge of the CMED/dispatch committee
for the city to find out how to address these issues. Mr. Andrews asked Mr.
Cote who is in charge of dispatch and he responded that this would be Ms. Nancy
Morrissey. Mr. Andrews asked if she was the one that the memos were sent to and
Mr. Cote said yes.
Mr.
Forgea feels that there needs to be a paper trail various cc’s sent to others
so they know they are being watched.
Mr.
Cote asked Mr. Andrews if the region has abandoned the issue of taking over
CMED. Mr. Andrews feels that it hasn’t necessarily been abandoned, but they
need more information before they are ready to make such a decision. This is
one of the reasons why he would like to speak with Mr. Manchino about their
financial statements.
Action – Mr. Cote to continue to update the
committee on progress.
Mr. Andrews to find
out who to contact re: CMED/dispatch committee.
Becket
Project:
Discussion-
Mr. Kupernik feels that Crown Atlantic is having trouble renting their tower space, therefore, there has not been a construction date set. Also, Mr. Kupernik has not heard anything else from the Turnpike Authority. Mr. Andrews suggested that the town of Becket send something to the Turnpike Authority regarding getting some space of their tower.
Action- Mr. Kupernik to have town of Becket send letter to Turnpike
Authority.
Mr. Kupernik to
continue to inform the committee on the Becket project.
Communications
Funding:
Discussion-
Mr. Cote went to a meeting regarding this. He reports that nothing was addressed to communications. When they got to this meeting, the discussion was based on some on-line system. At no point was anyone interested in talking about operations.
At a second meeting; having to do with the SATURN program, again, no questions were answered regarding EMS. They were just told that EMS would be taken care of. Mr. Cote believes that all of the money has been spoken for, and there won’t be any for communications projects.
Mr. Cote reports that Ms. Moriarty has spoken to Mr. Prenney, and although he didn’t come right out and say it, he eluded that there would be some money for an engineer or consultant to revamp/re-evaluate communications and also “trip-wire” training for dispatchers. Mr. Andrews feels that this will be a waste of money, because hospitals were trained to do this and now they are training dispatchers.
Action- Mr. Cote to continue to update committee on communications funding; if any.
Next
Meeting:
The
next meeting will be held on October 3, 2002 at 8:45 a.m. in the McCallum
Building Living Room at CDH.
Adjourn: A motion was made to adjourn at 9:48 am. This motion was seconded
and approved unanimously.
Lisa Herringshaw, Recorder