Within our Walls: Carrington Ambulance serves community

This week's edition of Within Our Walls features the Carrington Ambulance Service. Carrington Ambulance Service is owned and operated by CHI St. Alexius Health Carrington.

We are a Basic Life Support (BLS) Service with Advanced Life Support (ALS) capabilities. This means that at a minimum, we must have an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and a CPR certified driver on shift at all times. When we have a paramedic on shift, we are able to provide ALS services.

Basic Life Support consists of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and other elements of care such as performing an initial assessment, airway management, oxygen therapy, and chest compressions. Advanced Life Support and Basic Life Support differ in their scope and complexity.

BLS focuses on life saving techniques, while ALS delves deeper into advanced cardiovascular life support by providing advanced airway management, medication administration, and complex resuscitation protocols. Protocols for care are developed by the North Dakota Department of Emergency Medical Services.

The Medical Director for each ambulance service is responsible to review these protocols, and approve the protocols he/she feels are appropriate for the service to provide. The protocols are a framework that directs the care paramedics and EMT's are able to provide without the presence of a doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant.

Carrington Ambulance Service consists of four full time paramedics, two as needed paramedics, four full time EMT's, and one as needed EMT. The ambulance department is overseen by a manager, and a medical director. The ambulance service also relies on as needed drivers from the community to assist with covering 911 and transfer calls.

Drivers are much needed for our service. To be a driver, one must be 18 years of age; have a valid driver's license; and have CPR certification. If an interested individual does not have CPR, we are willing to provide education and certification. Drivers typically sign up for 8-hour increments of call coverage. However, we are flexible in that we appreciate any time/help

an individual is willing to provide. Drivers receive on call pay during the time frame they agree to cover. They will also be paid an hourly rate if they need to respond to a 911 call, or drive a transfer to a bigger hospital. Average 911 calls last thirty to sixty minutes, and a transfer is approximately 5 hours.

In addition to providing for 911 calls and transfers, the ambulance service provides education classes for hospital staff and the community. We are able to provide the following classes: CPR, Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS). We are currently in the process of obtaining certification that would allow our service to provide classes on becoming an Emergency Medical Responder (also known as First Responder), EMT, and Advanced Emergency Medical Technician.

If you are interested in becoming a driver for Carrington Ambulance Service, or are in need of any of our education classes, please call 701-652-2374. We are happy to assist with your education needs, and we would love any interested drivers to join our team.