The Pennington First Aid Squad responded to 1021 calls in 2009, almost exactly the same as 2008.
The Boro of Pennington accounted for 26% of these calls with most of the remainder in Hopewell Township. Six locations accounted for 23% of our calls: Hopewell Garden Apartments (72), Stony Brook Assisted Living (71), Merrill-Lynch (31), Woolsey Court (26), Bristol-Myers Squibb (16) and Hopewell Township police (16).
The PFAS supplied mutual aid 97 times; to Lawrence (42), Ewing (37), Union (11), Hopewell (5), and Trenton (2). In return, we received mutual aid 43 times, almost all from Hopewell Valley Emergency Services. The mutual aid we provided was down from the 120 calls in 2008 and the mutual aid we received rose from 35 calls in 2008.
Our work could not have been accomplished without the work of the dedicated volunteers who responded to calls, kept our building and ambulances in order, helped with fund drives, and recruited and trained new members. The PFAS training center conducted two complete EMT-B courses and regular, monthly drills this year. Sixty-seven of our members responded to at least one call throughout the year and 17 responded to more than 50 calls.
PFAS salutes the top ten responders for 2009. Together these ten made 1347 responses to calls for help from our community.
PFAS top ten responders for 2009. From top left: Neal Blackwell, Daniel Boone, Richard Gordon, John Muccioli, Jess Niederer, Kristen Orlandi, Kirk Schmitt, Tom Steinbacher, Tom Tedd, and Heather Varrasse
A new section has been added to the "SOP, Skills, Procedures" tab called Manuals. I've attempted to collect and post every manual for every piece of equipment on the ambulances I could find so they're available to the whole squad and not just to those with access to the President's office. Will add more as they become available. Some files are pretty big because some vendors don't seem to have manuals available on line. The paper manuals were scanned in those cases. Login is required.
The President's report on voter eligibility for the 2009 election has been posted.
Receipts for purchase vouchers may now be uploaded in Microsoft Word format. Either the old .DOC format or the new, XML based, .DOCX format may be used, but not all approvers can read the .DOCX format.
Military style tourniquets designed for easy, fast use will now be carried on the ambulances. The tourniquets will be carried in the cravat bags and a check will be added to the weekend rig check to help members remember what the tourniquets look like and where they are found on the ambulances. For further information, follow this link.
Guidelines for controlling bleeding on extremities and for administration of nitroglycerin have changed. Tourniquets are now back in favor and the cut-off systolic pressure for nitroglycerin has been lowered to 100 mm Hg. The skills assessment sheets have been updated to reflect the changes.
Guidelines for Hopewell Valley Squads dealing with suspected swine flu patients have been posted.
Pictures and the program for the 2009 Captain's party have been posted.
A new base station radio has been installed and new, simplified instructions for the home alert test are available.
Pictures from the 2007 Memorial Day Parade at the squad have been added to the collection. Thanks to Julie Aberger for sharing.
Extensive helps for emsCharts have been added to the web site. Each page of a chart is reproduced in the helps. Help for each entry will "pop up" as the user slides the mouse pointer over it.