by Bill Gaillard
Eight Town of Hoosick Rescue Squad members attended the 29th Vital Signs conference held in Syracuse, October 18-21. Members were President/Training Officer Bill Gaillard, Vice President/Assistant Training Officer Deborah Lohnes, Treasurer Susan Eddy, Captain Rita Kittel, Accountant Roseann Miller, Weapons of Mass Destruction Expert Ronald Sampath, Nathaniel Moseley and Pamela Mayhew.
[private]The Conference features guest speakers with various fields of expertise who offer seminars and provide web sites to receive their additional lectures in many areas. In addition to the seminars there was an EMS trade show featuring ambulances, uniforms, billing services and equipment for use in the field of EMS.
Of particular interest to THRS were new defibrillators that are even easier to use than the current ones, monitoring devices for oxygen, cardiac monitoring and carbon dioxide measurement. With the advent of electronic patient care reporting, recording monitors become even more of an asset.
One device on the “Christmas wish list” is a truly self loading mechanism that lifts the cot and places it in the ambulance. This would be a real backbone saver, but it comes with a big price tag.
One major learning issue was a restructuring of the basic EMT program to coincide with the National Curriculum so that EMTs would be trained alike throughout the Country.
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