Western Mass Emergency
Medical Services Committee, Inc.
Meeting:
Executive
Committee
Date: August
2, 2001
Place: McCallum
Building Living Room, CDH, Northampton
Presiding: Robert
Hopkins, President
Called
to Order: 10:35 am
Adjourned: 11:45 am
Attendance:
Present
- Brian
Andrews, Raymond Conway, MD, Mary Cushman, RN, Dan Harrington, Robert Hopkins,
Dave Keefe, Steve Manchino, Linda Moriarty, and Jeff Rawson
Minutes: A motion was made to accept minutes as written. This was seconded and approved unanimously.
Chairperson
Manuals:
Discussion –
Ms.
Cushman reports that we have a general draft of the manual. There are a few items that still need to be
inserted and upon Ms. Josefski updating some material this will be re-typed and
ready to be distributed. Ms. Cushman
circulated the draft looking for any additions or suggestions from the
committee, of which there were none.
Mr. Hopkins asked if there had been a motion made at a prior meeting
regarding including a copy of “Roberts’ Rules”. Ms. Cushman told the committee that Dr. Conway, Ms. Josefski and
herself had just discussed this and Dr. Conway has a handout that he feels
would work well in its’ place. It is
felt that this book would be very costly to the office and the book is somewhat
wordy. Mr. Hopkins agreed that this
handout would serve its’ purpose very well.
A motion was made that we insert Dr. Conways’ handout in place of
“Roberts’ Rules”. The motion was
seconded and approved unanimously.
Action – Dr. Conway to get the
WMEMS office a copy of handout.
Ms. Josefski to update manual.
Communications
Committee Update:
Discussion –
Mr.
Keefe reports that they had an excellent meeting this morning. They discussed
in great length the Hampden East Project, which is a joint usage agreement with
National Grid. They will supply the
antenna, the hard line, and a little box that will allow our equipment to patch
with their antenna and hard line. We
have no financial agreement with the potential users as of yet and are in the
process of developing these.
Mr.
Keefe reports that after a great deal of discussion Mr. Zlogar made a motion at
the Communications Committee meeting that the Regional Council retains majority
ownership and have a memorandum of understanding with users. This motion was
approved by the Comm. Committee.
Mr.
Andrews stated that he believes that because this is state funded, we need to
retain ownership. Dr. Conway asked if it
would make more sense for Regional Council to retain full ownership as opposed
to majority ownership. Mr. Keefe
responded that in light of Mr. Andrews’ comments, he believes that in this case
we would retain full ownership, but feels that to work through these issues
will be important for future projects.
In the memos of understanding it would clearly define who would be
responsible for expenses. These memos
will have to be with all users: National Grid, Wilbraham Fire Department, and
WMEMS Regional Council. Ms. Moriarty
informed the group that we are currently checking into liability insurance
also.
Mr.
Hopkins informed the committee that at last months Communications Committee
meeting a motion was made to change leadership. It was agreed that the committee
needed a change of leadership. After
discussing this issue with Mr. Keefe, he also agreed that this would be a good
choice. Although Mr. Hopkins would like input from the committee themselves to
nominate a chairperson, Mr. Hopkins would like some input from this
committee.
Mr.
Keefe reported that another big topic of the Communications Committee meeting
was the problems in Franklin County with the Shelburne Mountain tower being
down. Mr. Keefe informed the committee
that Mr. Manners requested that Mr. Cote and Ms. Moriarty be present for an
upcoming meeting regarding this situation; to which they both agreed. A final issue was a great deal of concern
regarding the diversion website. The
committee voted to draft a letter to OEMS asking them how they are going to
assist Region 1 in complying with this in actual planning and financing. Hearing this, Ms. Moriarty reported that at
the last State Executive Meeting Brad Prenney addressed this. There are a few things that have to happen:
1)
There
has to be a discussion at the state level defining diversion terms. Regions 1 and 2 have diversion on or off,
whereas Regions 3 and 4 have some type of yellow diversion. Region 5 has a similar setup. The state feels that all five regions need
to sit down and discuss these.
2)
Another
issue is who will have access to changing this site. All regions and state feel that hospitals should not be able to
change their status.
Mr.
Prenney spoke with Ms. Moriarty after the meeting and asked her what she feels
our Region would need in order to get this up and running. Ms. Moriarty feels
that it could be fairly easy to set this up in Hampden, Berkshire, and Franklin
Counties with approximately 3 computers set up at their dispatch agencies. Ms. Moriarty felt that the difficulty would
be in Hampshire County and it would only be a matter of setting up a computer
at Northampton Control and then tying in by phone other towns that self
dispatch. Mr. Prenney mentioned that there would probably be money available
for the computers for this project. Ms.
Moriarty believes that what this is trickling down to is that all services
would need a fax machine to get this information.
In
light of this information from Ms. Moriarty, Mr. Keefe would like suggestions
as to what to do about the letter that was agreed on in the communications
meeting. Mr. Hopkins stated that he
would use his discretion in drafting this letter. Mr. Andrews asked Ms. Moriarty how the line charges were going to
be paid for this system. Ms. Moriarty
stated that she would contact Mr. Prenney and ask him about these charges.
Ms.
Moriarty asked the committee if they would like Mr. Cote and herself to look
into these computers being established at the dispatch centers. The committee agreed with this. Ms. Moriarty made a motion that WMEMS pursue
the idea of computer access to a web based diversion system with computers
sited at Northampton Control, Shelburne Control, Berkshire Communications
Center, and Springfield CMED. This
motion was seconded and approved unanimously with 0 abstentions.
Mr.
Keefe then requested that Ms. Moriarty come to the September 6 Communications
Committee meeting, in which she agreed.
Mr. Keefe also informed the committee that Mr. Cote is going to be
meeting with the County Committees to see where any communication problems lie.
Action – Ms.
Moriarty to check with the State about line fees for continuous internet
connections.
Ms. Moriarty or Mr. Cote to look into
computers in dispatch centers.
State
Trauma Committee:
Discussion –
Mr.
Harrington informed the Executive Committee that there is now a State Trauma
Committee Website at: www.state.ma.us/dph/oems/trauma/trauma.htm
Mr.
Harrington would like to recommend that WMEMS post this link on our
website. Ms. Josefski agreed to do
this.
Additional
items: there is a great deal going on with the three different sub
committees. There is a spring deadline
to declare guidelines for Trauma Center Hospitals. It looks as though Massachusetts is going to use the ACS as a
standard. All this information is
posted on the website and these meetings are open to the public. Mr. Harrington also reported that they are
in the process of re-activating the education committee. This is a public outreach committee.
Ms.
Moriarty stated that this was mentioned at the State Exec. Committee meeting
and there was a suggestion that the Trauma Committee try to link or become part
of the state PIER committee. She is not
sure how this suggestion was received. Ms. Cushman feels that the State
Committee is working very hard, but the sub-committees are the ones that are
the driving force.
Also,
Ms. Moriarty informed the committee that Ms. Josefski attended a run report
committee meeting. Ms. Josefski stated
that the state is looking to find forms that collect certain vital
information. They are not looking for a
standardized form. The State is also
looking into finding someone to create a software application for electronic
run forms. Mr. Keefe mentioned that one thing that the fire services have found
out the hard way is that until you can collect data effectively, you will lose
out financially on the whole picture.
Ms.
Cushman commented that it was mentioned at this meeting that the computerized
run report is already being worked on in Western Mass. She feels that we should look at some of the
other reports that have been tried in other states and feels that we should
take a look at past mistakes to avoid them here.
Action -- Ms. Josefski to link the State Trauma website with the WMEMS
website.
Appointing
Chairpersons:
Mr. Hopkins would like suggestions for
chairpersons for the following committees:
Trauma
Committee, Communications Committee, PIER Committee, MCI Committee,
Training/Scholarship Committee, Nursing Committee, Physicians Council, and
Awards Committee.
The
By-Laws Committee is ad-hoc.
Mr.
Hopkins has spoken with people that have expressed interest in chairing certain
committees, such as: Linda Murphy for Trauma Committee, Brian Andrews for
Communications Committee, Mike Clapp for PIER Committee, Dave Keefe for MCI
Committee, Lucy Britton for Nursing (although this is not a standing
committee), Wes Stevenson for training although he hasn’t discussed this with
him yet, Dr. Dinneen for Physicians Council, and Kevin Andrews or Roberta Hover
for Awards Committee.
Mr.
Hopkins feels that all committees need a vice chair to cover if the chair is
not present.
Mr.
Keefe feels that it needs to be emphasized that the meetings need to have
strict beginning and ending times.
Dr.
Conway stated that Dr. Dinneen is the chair of physicians with Dr. Sutton being
vice-chair.
Ms.
Cushman feels that the trauma committee should be run by a trauma surgeon, but
Mr. Hopkins stated that all chairpersons need to be Regional Council
voters. She feels that there was not a
lot of notice about choosing chairpersons at this meeting.
In
regards to one of the suggestions by Mr. Hopkins for chairmanship, Mr. Keefe
asked what the plan would be if a chairperson was not re-nominated to Regional
Council by the county due to lack of participation. Mr. Hopkins replied that in order to be a chairperson they must
be a voting member of Regional Council.
When Mr. Keefe asked when the decisions would be made, Mr. Hopkins said
he wants decisions made by next meeting. Speaking on behalf of Hampshire County
Committee, Mr. Keefe stated that the belief of their committee is that they
attend not only Regional Council but also the County committee actively.
Ms.
Moriarty stated that the State Level Meetings meet every other month. Perhaps
the committees (other than Regional Council) meet bi-monthly. Mr. Hopkins feels that the chairpersons can
make the decisions for each committee.
Ms. Cushman mentioned that the meetings need to have more structure and
support so they can get the most out of their time together.
Mr.
Hopkins will defer chairpersons for 1 week. The WMEMS office will get a list
out of the committees and then get feedback.
Ms.
Moriarty relayed to the group that Region 5 has cut down of the committee
reports at each meeting. Ms. Cushman
doesn’t feel that this is a good idea because this diminishes discussion
amongst the groups. Mr. Hopkins will
leave this decision open to the committee.
If anyone is unhappy with this system they can voice their opinions.
Mr.
Harrington asked if the vice-chair that is appointed to a committee need to be
a Regional Council voter. Mr. Hopkins
stated that the vice-chair does not need to be a Regional Council voter.
Mr.
Keefe suggested that there should be an official notification if anyone is
interested in chairing a committee.
With all in agreement, Mr. Hopkins will draft a letter looking for
suggestions. Dr. Conway feels that it should be mentioned that the vice-chair
does not need to be a voting member.
Mr. Hopkins will accept suggestions until August 14, 2001.
Action – WMEMS office to send out Mr. Hopkins
letter asking for suggestions for committee
chairs.
Miscellaneous:
Discussion –
A
suggestion was made that the Executive Committee meetings be held in the
McCallum Building Living Room at the regular time. All agreed that this would be an acceptable location.
Action – WMEMS office to arrange
location.
Next
Meeting:
Discussion –
The
next meeting will be held on September 6, 2001 at 10:00 am. This meeting will be held in the McCallum
Living Room.
Adjourn: A motion was made to adjourn at 11:45 am. This motion was
seconded and approved unanimously.
Lisa
Herringshaw, Secretary, Recorder