|
Click here to enter our new fundraiser mall!
Come and join us at our golf tournament for a great time. Call the office for information.

Article was originally in the Pocono Record
on 5/02/08:
Keep EMS workers in mind whenever you
drive
By DEBBIE KULICK
May 02, 2008
This year marks the 35th observance of EMS week. The week is designed to honor EMS
providers and raise public awareness about health and safety issues.
Our local EMS workers are dedicated professionals who commit hundreds of hours to
providing emergency medical care to our community. It is amazing to believe that in a short 35-year span such significant
progress has been made not only in the technology that saves lives, but in the education of both EMS providers and the general
public.
May 18 through 24 is the time set aside to raise awareness and to thank those who
provide us with their dedicated life-saving skills. It is easy to see that those who do this work have not just the desire
to do so, but are carrying out a life passion as well. Their tireless efforts providing help at critical times of need often
go unrecognized as well as unrewarded. To each and every one of them, thank you.
After so many years of public education, we would expect that everyone would know
how vital some things are with respect to EMS. Today most people can tell you what CPR is or an AED, but amazingly enough
the simple act of yielding to emergency vehicles when driving seems to have been forgotten. Instead of waxing eloquent about
the emergency system its process, and its people, I asked a significant number of EMS providers what pet peeves they had about
the public as they try to do their job. Emerging from the list as a leading contender was the response of drivers to the moving
ambulance.
As a result of my interest in the matter, here are the top 10 favorite — and
familiar — pet peeves from ambulance and emergency vehicle drivers:
- Drivers who continue to drive, never pulling over and certainly never noticing an ambulance
is behind them.
- Drivers who continue to drive alongside the ambulance on the shoulder of the road!?
- Drivers who see an emergency vehicle approaching, note other cars have pulled over, allowing
for a great opening into traffic and then pulling out in front of the approaching emergency vehicle, thus securing their place
in traffic and perhaps history.
- Drivers who suddenly, without warning, hesitation or anything else, look in the rear
view mirror, see an emergency vehicle, then stop dead in the middle of the road!?
- Drivers who feel, that by some great power, they will outrun the ambulance behind them.
- Drivers who feel they have the right to ride on the coattails of the speeding emergency
vehicle through traffic, simply to beat the system.
- Drivers who develop deafness and blindness, they never hear or see anything behind them
... officially.
- Drivers who think, just because they are on the other side of the road they don't have
to stop, move over and wait. They feel exempt, because they're going in the other direction.
- Drivers who believe, by some mysterious act, all traffic is moving off the road ahead
of them to clear the way just for them.
And the No. 1 reason emergency vehicle drivers get peeved when drivers don't pull
to the side of the road and stop is: They know the patient couldn't possibly be someone from their family!?
This is the law: The law requires that all vehicles pull to the right and stop when
an emergency vehicle approaches.
This means either side of the road, except on a divided highway.
Likewise, note that many EMS personnel and firefighters use blue lights on their
vehicles to quickly and safely answer your call for help.
Although these are courtesy lights, please remember to follow the same procedure
when you see them approach. These volunteers are critical to the safety and welfare of our community. We want everyone to
get there and safely.
As a community we extend our thanks to everyone of our EMS providers no matter what
part you play in our chain of safety.
Thanks to: Bushkill Emergency Corps, Bushkill Fire Company, Marshalls Creek Fire
Company, Shawnee Fire Company and Monroe County Control Center.
You certainly all live up to this year's theme: Your Life Is Our Mission.
Reprinted from The Pocono Record on 3/20/08:
Bushkill Corp. remains primary
emergency provider for M. Smithfield
March 20, 2008
Middle Smithfield Township Board of Supervisors unanimously
approved at its monthly meeting on Thursday last week a memorandum of understanding signed by the four companies that will
provide emergency services to the township with Bushkill Emergency Corp. remaining the primary provider.
The 12-page contract, settled after a 10-month period
in which there was no written agreement after the pact with Bushkill Emergency Corp. expired, came after months of meetings,
a $10,000 study by two consultants authorized by the state and their subsequent report and after all four emergency responders
agreed in a meeting last week on billing and response issues.
The arrangement will start on April 1 and will run
for a six-month trial. During that time, there will be monthly meetings to iron out any problems that arise.
Bushkill Emergency Corp. will be the first-due advanced
life support (ALS) for serious, life-threatening crises such as heart attacks or serious accident injuries, and basic life
support (BLS) provider for injuries such as broken legs and Suburban EMS second due for ALS. Marshalls Creek Fire Department
would provide basic life support vehicles as a BLS second due and Suburban and Med Mobile would complement the network and
provide transport services.
Supervisor Chairman Scott Schaller said the Monroe
County Emergency Control Center will assign BLS providers for secondary calls depending on which organization is available
when Bushkill Emergency Corp.'s resources have been exhausted. "When BEC is back in service for Middle Smithfield Township,
they will be dispatched for the next ALS/BLS call from the Control Center," the contract reads.
Furthermore, the contract states that "BEC hereby
acknowledges that its first due Advanced Life Support crew does not provide and therefore shall never be unavailable for emergency
calls as the result of performing non-emergency transports from a residents, medical facility and/or hospital."
Debbie Kulick, president of BEC, has assured neighboring
townships that the contract maintains business as usual for them and will not change its response service.
The contract stipulates that each provider maintain
each month detailed response statistics to meet the five-minute response minimum as well as "a monthly record of equipment
maintenance and service which record shall by supplied to the township upon request."
The contract also said that each emergency provider
must present a monthly financial statement and submit to an audit by the township when requested.
Bushkill Emergency Corps gets donation from Smithfield Rotary
for special chair
February 08, 2008
Bushkill Emergency Corps Financial Secretary, Barbara Kulick accepts a check for $2,200.00
from Bob Wehe, President of The Rotary Club Of The Smithfields. The donation was used to purchase a Stryker Stair Chair, also
seen at right, for the emergency corps. The chair is used to move patients from difficult locations such as rooms with tight
doors and down stairs where a traditional stretcher will not go and in many cases are dangerous to use. The chair itself will
not only create safer movement of patients, but will help prevent rescuer injuries and rush the patient to the hospital when
often, time is of the essence. Previously they would have to wait for additional ambulance personnel, the fire department
or the police to provide lifting assistance to get the patient from a difficult location.
This article originally appeared in the Pocono Record.
|

|
| Snow tubing at Fernwood Resort |
Fernwood Resort Winter 2007/08
|

Ray and Nancy Felmly Receive a donation from the Lehman Twp. Supervisors
|

|
| Skiing at Shawnee Mtn. |
Shawnee Resort - Winter 2007/ 08
|
|