LEWISBURG — A move to enhance the level of care offered by ambulance services in Mifflinburg, Milton and Watsontown will cost nine full-time emergency medical technicians their jobs in the new year.
As of Jan. 1, nine EMTs will be terminated and five paramedics hired to staff ambulance services in the three communities, according to Nicholas Klose, director of Evangelical Community Hospital’s Pre Hospital Services department.
This will leave the ambulance services with 18 full-time EMTs and 20 full-time paramedics, he said.
Klose said this type of “realignment of services” has taken place in communities across the country as a way of enhancing care offered to residents and preventing duplication of services.
“Unfortunately it’s a reduction in EMTs,” he added.
Paramedics are certified in advanced life support and able to offer a higher level of care, including providing medications, cardiac monitoring and giving fluids intravenously. EMTs are certified in basic life support, allowing them to bandage wounds, give oxygen and assist with some medications.
A paramedic is required by law to be on the scene for most ambulance calls, and Klose said the realignment will limit the chances that a paramedic from another location will be called out to meet the ambulance.
Stacy Mast, captain of the Mifflinburg Community Ambulance Association, said residents will benefit from the changes.
Presently, the ambulance company contracts with the hospital services department to have two EMTs on call 24 hours a day. Starting in January, there will be one EMT and a paramedic available at all times.
This means a higher quality of care at a cheaper rate to residents who won’t have to pay separately for the ambulance and a paramedic, Mast said.
The downside is that with the addition of the paramedic, the Mifflinburg ambulance service’s territory will be expanded to include New Berlin and parts of Snyder County.
News
Nine EMTs to be out of work
Ambulances to add paramedics
- News
-
-
Getting caffeine fix as easy as taking deep breath
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Move over, coffee and Red Bull. A Harvard professor thinks the next big thing will be people inhaling their caffeine from a lipstick-sized tube. Critics say the novel product is not without its risks.
-
Jerry Sandusky argues for local jurors, suggests delay
HARRISBURG — Jerry Sandusky wants jurors in his child sex-abuse trial to be chosen from the community where he lives and is suggesting a trial delay may be the best way to address the intense publicity generated by the case.
-
State House enters second day of debate on gas drilling bill
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's House of Representatives is beginning its second day of debate on a bill to impose a fee on natural-gas drilling in Pennsylvania and toughen regulations over the booming industry.
-
Cases involving gas station drug sales advance to Montour County Court
DANVILLE – Three people charged with selling heroin and Oxycotin tablets during two separate transactions at a convenience store lot Jan. 2 will face court action.
-
Danville school options aired with borough council
DANVILLE — After borough officials pledged to work with school officials toward a decision on the flood-damaged middle school, council members voted not to give or sell any farmland it owns. The purpose of the unanimous action by the council Tuesday night was so the district knows that rumored option to move the school won’t happen. The borough owns a farm across from the Danville Primary School.
-
Five watershed projects receive $873,000 in state funding
NORTHUMBERLAND -- Five Valley watershed projects will get nearly $873,000 from the state Department of Environmental Protection, which announced funding for 73 projects to improve watersheds, stormwater runoff, acid mine drainage and educational programs, among other environmental efforts.
-
Dispute turns into gun threat, troopers say
After an argument in which his wife threatened divorce, William Warren Woolsey, 36, grabbed a .22-caliber rifle and told her to meet him in the bedroom, saying he would kill himself, state police at Milton said.
-
Mom allegedly beat toddlers with brush
MIFFLINBURG -- A 22-year-old Mifflinburg mother has been charged with beating her two toddlers with a hairbrush until they bled from abrasions all over their faces and bodies, state police at Milton said. The abuse came to light when Brittany Morgan Sullivan's parents came home and found the wounds on their grandchildren, according to police.
-
Commissioners give disabled Sunburian a chance
SUNBURY -- A 22-year-old disabled man asked the Northumberland County commissioners a life-changing question last week. "Can I have a job?" Giuseppe Bua, of Sunbury, was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a genetic disorder in which bones break easily. Sometimes the bones break for no known reason. The disorder also can cause weak muscles, brittle teeth, a curved spine and hearing loss.
-
Trucking firm to add 25 drivers
MILTON -- The president of Watsontown Trucking Co. said Tuesday that his firm will be hiring 25 truck drivers in addition to several diesel technician and management positions, all due to expansion. President Steve Patton said the company, which has been in the Milton Industrial Park since 2004, bought 14 additional acres in the park, adding 10,000 square feet of office space and maintenance facilities. Construction on the new space, he said, will begin shortly and is targeted to be completed by June.
-
Mayor wants trucks to help fund roads
SUNBURY -- Mayor David Persing is frustrated with truck traffic entering the former Celotex site on North Front Street, and he wants to do something about it. Charge an impact fee. Gas companies have paid millions to repair roads damaged by trucks in the Marcellus shale region, and Persing wants to levy a fee to compensate the city for damage to roads caused by trucks hauling drilling waste through the city. About $25 per truck per visit, he said.
-
18-year-old dies in truck crash on Routes 11-15
LIVERPOOL -- An 18-year old Selinsgrove man was killed when his pickup truck collided with a tractor-trailer on Routes 11-15 in Perry County.
- More News Headlines
-
