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From Classroom to Crisis: The Story of Our Emergency Medical Technician Programme
For years, Provincial has been redefining security. The company is in the business of keeping people safe and part of that offering is a focus on the health of their client’s employees, visitors and contractors.
“We looked to see what other projects were out there within the client’s offices across the globe,” says Wes, the Regional Emergency Services Manager for the EMEA “and we discovered one campus in the United States where they hired an external contract company who provided medical cover from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.”
“These basic EMTs could only administer certain medications,” They could not carry out an ECG or administer medications similar to our practitioners.”
Armed with the information and data around the requirements in Dublin, the idea of upskilling personnel from within his team as Emergency Medical Technicians and deploying them across the client’s four sites in Dublin was created.
Better qualifications
“What we have now is a dedicated team of trained EMTs, who can now administer pain medication for mild, moderate, and severe pain, mentions Wes. “If an employee is suffering from a medical condition or has been injured from a traumatic incident, our team can now provide a very high level of care. Anaphylaxis, Panic Attacks, Heart Attacks, Strokes, Seizures, Life-threatening haemorrhages, Cardiac Arrests and Spinal injuries are just some of the incidents that the Meta MRT have dealt with since being established”.
“And to be honest, we need them,” he continues. “There are six thousand employees between all our campuses so it is like a small town and every week we have at least five to seven serious instances that we need to attend to.”
To illustrate the point, Wes goes through some recent cases.
Case study one
The EMTs often carry out interoperable drills and exercises with the teams on site, to ensure they keep their skills sharp and up to date. One of their recent exercises was based on a member of staff who had fallen from a ladder and suffered from an open fracture and suspected spinal injury. This exercise was carried out on a Tuesday morning. Three days later, the team were tasked with providing care for an employee who, while cycling to work, was involved in an incident falling from their bicycle. The employee ended up suffering from pain in their back as well as pins and needles in their legs. Full spinal immobilisation was initiated, and the employee was transported to a specialist hospital for treatment. We later discovered that the employee had sustained damage to their vertebrae during the incident.
Case study two
During a recent incident, an employee presented to the treatment room for help. She was in the process of moving to another country and told the EMT on duty that she was having a panic attack due to the stress involved. The EMT carried out a full assessment, including a blood glucose level, oxygen levels, blood pressure and an ECG. All of the symptoms and vital signs indicated that the employee was suffering from a suspected heart attack. The employee was immediately transported to the hospital with thanks from the ambulance service and has since made a full recovery.
Case study three
“Just last week an EMT was called up to what’s called a woman’s room,” says Wes. “He found a woman there thirty-six weeks pregnant, feeling dizzy, severely nauseous with abdominal pain, and she was sweating very heavily. She refused an ambulance. This was her second child but she’d never felt this way before. So what we’d normally do with someone who is feeling sick is get their legs raised but when it’s a pregnant woman it has to be done in what we call a left lateral position. And that one action alone reversed the whole thing. One minute, she could hardly see a thing but within minutes she was as good as new.”
“In situations like these if there’s not an EMT on site it is left in the hands of a first aider who simply does not have the skills or in some cases the permission to deal with them,” says Wes. “That means an ambulance has to be called, and I’m afraid in Dublin, that can mean you are waiting for three to five hours. So there is value in having proper EMTs here.”
Every week some people are glad they are.