Countywide : UCI Hospital Opens Paramedic Aid Unit

Emergency calls have already begun arriving at UCI Medical Center’s Paramedic Base Station, which opened this week as the seventh such emergency unit in the county.

The first call Monday came from paramedics treating an 83-year-old woman who had fainted. They asked via the radio system for nurse approval of drugs they wanted to administer and for guidance on which hospital to take the woman to.

“These are more than your run-of-the-mill calls,” said Judie Baen, coordinator of the 16 emergency room nurses who will take calls from paramedics responding to accidents or acute illnesses.

The new unit, in the emergency area of the hospital, had received 25 calls for help in its first three days.

The nurses and 10 doctors in the unit, all members of the teaching staff, have undergone 16 hours of ride-along time with paramedics and 48 hours of class time, Baen said.

In addition, they trained for 40 hours each at the other six base stations in the county to become accustomed to operating the radio equipment. They must record all calls on tape and in a log that describes the patients’ symptoms and what drugs or actions were recommended.

A nurse or doctor who receives a call will stay on the line with the paramedic until the patient has been delivered to a hospital, if that is recommended, Baen said.

The equipment also can give a readout of a patient’s heartbeat to give the medical personnel better information in treatment, Baen said.

In 1985, UCI Medical Center in Orange, which had operated a base station for several years, told the County Board of Supervisors that it could no longer do so because the hospital had to cut costs.

The supervisors moved the station to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

“Perhaps it took losing the base system five years ago to make us appreciate getting it back,” said Dr. Kym Salness, UCI Medical Center director of emergency services.

Population growth and an increase in the number of patients needing acute care created the need for an additional base station in the Orange area, he said.

“We have realized how important this program is and how little savings was involved” in closing the unit, he said.

Also, Salness said, “all the medical students will be able to observe the operations.” He added that there is a nationwide shortage of doctors trained in emergency procedures. Medical schools such as UCI must be designated as emergency bases to train emergency personnel.

The hospital expects to take about 500 calls a month.