Western Mass Emergency
Medical Services Committee, Inc.
Meeting:
Executive Committee
Date: September 6, 2001
Place: McCallum Building Living Room, CDH,
Northampton
Presiding: Robert Hopkins, President
Called
to Order: 10:20 a.m.
Adjourned: 10:55 a.m. (regular session), 12:55 a.m. (executive
session)
Attendance:
Present
- Brian
Andrews, Mary Cushman, RN, Dan Harrington, Robert Hopkins, Dana Johnson, Steve
Manchino, Linda Moriarty, and Jeff Rawson
Absent
– Ray
Conway, MD
Minutes: A motion was made to accept minutes as written. This was seconded and approved unanimously.
Chairperson
Manuals:
Discussion –
A
completed copy of the chairperson manual was presented at this meeting. After
review, Ms. Cushman stated, “It looks really good”. The committee sends their thanks to Ms. Josefski for making
changes and compiling the information.
Ms. Cushman would like regular updates made to all of these circulating
manuals as warranted. It was also requested that Mr. Hopkins update the memo
regarding the open meeting law. Mr.
Hopkins will have this at the next meeting. After discussion it was decided
that the manuals would be passed out to committee chairs after the Regional
Council meeting, September 13. Once
everyone has a chance to look at them, a meeting will be scheduled between the
Executive Committee and committee chairs.
A suggestion was made that everyone from Executive Comm. get a copy of
the manual. It was agreed that the
office would make copies.
Action
– Mr. Hopkins to bring updated memo re: open meeting law.
WMEMS office to make additional copies
of manual.
Appointing
Chairpersons:
After receiving responses from his request
for chair nominations, Mr. Hopkins made the following suggestions:
Award Committee: Roberta Hover
Communications: Brian Andrews
Trauma Systems: Mary Cushman
Physicians: M.J. Dineen
Nursing: Lucy Britton
Training: Wes Stevenson
MCI: Dave Keefe
Public Education: Mike Clapp
During
discussions with these new chairs, Mr. Hopkins requested that they all appoint
co-chairs to have coverage in the event that the chair is absent. He would like the office to send all chairs
a letter of appointment and Ms. Cushman suggested Mr. Hopkins call the chairs
to confirm they still accept their appointment.
The
group suggested that all meeting times and locations be posted to the web, and
Ms. Moriarty informed them that they currently are for all of the monthly
meetings, along with the minutes.
Action – WMEMS office to send out chairperson
confirmation letters and make copies of manual for the next executive meeting.
Communications
Committee Update:
Discussion –
Mr.
Andrews reported that Mr. Marcus from Marcus Communications made a presentation
about the Hampden East Project. He has
been working on numerous aspects of this project. At next months meeting Mr. Cote is going to present a resource
handbook containing the service frequencies complied from the returned
surveys. Ms. Moriarty, Mr. Andrews, and
Mr. Cote are going to contact the services that never responded to the
survey. Also, Mr. Cote is going to get
a copy of the CMED operator’s manual.
After a vote it was decided that next months communications meeting
would be scheduled before Regional Council at 8:30 a.m. on October 11 in the
McCallum Living Room. Ms. Cushman asked
if Executive was therefore going to meet earlier on October 4th and
the consensus was to keep the regular 10 am time.
Action – None.
Big
E Booth:
Discussion –
Ms.
Moriarty reported that scheduling for the booth has been very good. We are
offering a t-shirt, 4 con-ed credits, and a free admission and parking ticket.
We needed to keep our staffing at two people per shift due to a cutback on
tickets this year. Like last year we will be raffling a bicycle helmet every
day, and the booth will have various EMS related handouts available for the
public.
Statewide
EMCAB Meeting:
Discussion –
Ms.
Moriarty informed the committee that the full EMCAB meeting is scheduled for
the morning of Monday September 10 with an afternoon session set aside for
member comment on the proposed draft changes to the 105 CMR’s.
OEMS
has new regulations requiring all BLS and Intermediate level ambulances to
carry epi-pens by October 1. Mr. Manchino reported there are restocking issues
because a medical director will not sign for them, which will make it difficult
for some services to comply. Ms. Moriarty mentioned this at a meeting, and the
state wasn’t sure what they would do about it. There is also a bill pending
which will require all first responders carry an epi-pen on their person.
People who oppose this should contact their legislators and inform them of the
large expense involved in this piece of legislation.
In
addition, the Senate has passed a program that would provide money for
defibrillators per city/town, either new ones or replacement ones. However, the
bill has not yet passed the House.
Ms.
Moriarty has spoken to OEMS in regards to supplying our region with computers
for Internet access at dispatch agencies and CMEDS in order to provide access
to the statewide hospital diversion website. Mr. Johnson asked Ms. Moriarty if
OEMS was going to pick up the fee for the Internet access service? Ms. Moriarty
stated that they haven’t responded to that issue yet. Ms. Moriarty also feels
that the hospitals should not be able to change their diversion status; the
CMED/dispatch agencies should do this.
Action – None.
Miscellaneous:
Discussion –
Mr.
Andrews asked if everyone in the office has a job description. Ms. Moriarty
stated that they do. Mr. Andrews would like a copy of the communications job
description brought to the next communications meeting.
Action – WMEMS office to bring a
copy of Mr. Cotes’ job description to the next
Communications meeting.
Next
Meeting:
Discussion –
The
next meeting will be held on October 4, 2001 at 10:00 am. This meeting will be held in the McCallum
Living Room.
Adjourn: A motion was made to go into Executive Session for the annual
salary review at 10:55 a.m. This motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
Lisa
Herringshaw, Secretary, Recorder