| Name | Bill |
|---|---|
| Last Name | Moore |
| Home Address | 3546 Valley Trail Chattanooga, TN 37415 United States |
| Organization Name | Chattanooga-Hamilton County Rescue Service |
| Describe Your Role In The Organization | I am the Secretary/Treasurer, I'm on the Board of Directors and I actively participate in technical rescues with CHCRS. |
| Organization Address | 5910 Lee Highway Chattanooga, TN 37421 United States |
| Website | https://chcrs.org |
| Best Phone Number To Reach You | 931-7997-3450 |
| Alternate Phone Number | 423-899-5910 |
| Email Address | bill.moore@chcrs.org |
| Alternate Email Address | info@chcrs.org |
| Please Describe Your Project In Detail | We are attempting to purchase a cardiac monitor and ventilator to support our efforts to become licensed as an ambulance service by the State of Tennessee. The cardiac monitor with AED capability is necessary to obtain our license. We are attempting to purchase a Zoll X Series Advanced Monitor and a Zoll EMV+ Portable Ventilator. It has been the ongoing practice of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Rescue to provide the highest standard of Advance Life Support “ALS” prehospital care to injured people in the wilderness environment. As a result of tightening in the state and federal regulations surrounding scheduled narcotics and other drugs needed to provide ALS care in the pre-hospital environment the CHCRS is presently unable to provide the prior established ALS care due to the inability to obtain required medications. Chief Lewis commissioned a group of officers to research and explore options to regain prehospital ALS capability. The committee representatives; Chief Bob Lewis, Assistant Chief Brian Krebs and Lieutenant Andrew Voss looked at the capabilities that CHCRS had been able to provide and researched methods that could allow CHCRS to maintain a stock of needed ALS prehospital care drugs particularly narcotics. In the past CHCRS was able to obtain the scheduled drugs through a relationship with Dr. David Wharton and Erlanger Medical Center under the direction of the late Dr. James Creel, the Medical Director for Hamilton County EMS, the agency having authority and jurisdiction for all first responder EMS work conducted in Hamilton County. After years of this relationship working seamlessly roughly 5-7 years ago the regulations around scheduled narcotics and other ALS drugs began to change within the state of Tennessee and the Federal Government. For many years CHCRS operated as an ALS Non-transport agency and provided care at the ALS level. Our fully licensed paramedics are overseen by our team physician with the approval of Hamilton County EMS and Dr. Creel. This allowed CHCRS to provide in field care outside of the capability of standard ambulance services. The transportation of the injured party to the hospital was handled by the local EMS agency. Typically, the on-scene paramedics who respond with the ambulance are ill equipped to access the patients that CHCRS serves. The patients that CHCRS serves have often suffered severe trauma in wilderness enviroments and are transported by ambulance or air-medical to the closest Level 1 Trauma Center. Erlanger is most often the trauma center destination of our patients. Dr. Wharton our team physician worked in the Emergency Department at Erlanger for many years and helped foster the relationship that allowed CHCRS access to the pharmaceuticals needed for ALS care. The first obstacle: The team worked to identify the categories of pre-hospital medical provider agencies recognized by the state of Tennessee. The team found that the Tennessee EMS Board only recognizes Advanced Life Support and Basic Life Support transport agencies. Within the state of Tennessee there is no classification for ALS “Non-transport”. The EMS board is unwilling to create a non-transport category. The second obstacle: Hamilton County EMS controls all first response medical care in the county this includes the fire departments and CHCRS. The care that CHCRS provides significantly exceeds the care that any other first response agency in the county can provide. Hamilton County EMS is unwilling to provide necessary narcotics to CHCRS thus limiting our scope of practice. The Third obstacle: CHCRS does not have a DEA license. Through many meetings and phone calls with Hamilton County EMS, the Tennessee EMS Board and Dr. Ron Buchheit, the current medical director for Hamilton County EMS, it was determined that there is no way possible to provide ALS care under our current situation. Hamilton County EMS is not willing to allow non-employees of their agency to use pharmaceuticals obtained with their DEA license. The team contacted the DEA to inquire about licensure requirements to obtain a DEA license. The only possible manner to be granted a DEA drug license is to be licensed within the state as an ambulance service. Conclusion: The team has concluded that the only solution that exist to this problem is to become a state recognized ambulance service licensed as a volunteer service. The state requires all ALS ambulance service providers to have at least one operational ambulance stocked with a minimum equipment and supply list. The acquisition of an ambulance by CHCRS provides a path to sustainable ALS care including obtaining narcotics. Hamilton County EMS is willing to execute a Memorandum of Understanding to allow CHCRS to operate in Hamilton County and to provide restock of any supplies or non-narcotic medications that are used or expire. CHCRS would need to have a medical director to be licensed Lieutenant Voss feels confident that Dr. Buchheit or Dr. Wharton would agree to serve as the medical director for CHCRS. Lieutenant Voss will work with the medical director to establish the medical protocols that the team will follow. |
| Please explain how your project meets the requirements of the American Rescue Plan | Sections 602(c)(1)(C) and 603(c)(1)(C) of the Act provide recipients with broad latitude to use the Fiscal Recovery Funds for the provision of government services. The interim final rule lists the provision of public safety services as qualifying for disbursement of Fiscal Recovery Funds. |
| Where would your project take place? | Chattanooga Area |
| How much will your project cost in total? | 51615.40 |
| Do you have any matching funding sources from other local governments, private entities, non-profits, or philanthropic entities for your project? | No |
| Please describe the source and list amounts of any other funding. | |
| What portion of the project are you asking the city to fund? | |
| If funded, when would your project start? | February 1, 2021 |
| How long would your project take to complete? | The project would last for the useful life of the equipment |
| What milestones would you use to measure your project’s progress? | This equipment would allow our medics to save lives that we currently don't have the equipment to save. Each live saved using this equipment would be a significant milestone. |
| How would you ensure accountability and transparency throughout the project lifecycle? | The use of this equipment would be logged in our reporting system and our dispatch records are public. Any agency requesting our medical team through established mutual aid avenues will have access to this equipment and our other medical resources. |
| If successful, how would your project benefit the community? | This is a piece of a larger project to put a truly off-road capable ambulance in service in the Chattanooga Area. The ambulances that currently serve Chattanooga and the rest of Hamilton County are very large and heavy and are generally unable to leave paved surfaces. Often patients are put in ATVs or other vehicles not designed for patient transport to get patients to waiting ambulances. We envision our ambulance being used for wilderness rescues, inclement weather events such as snow and ice and for mass casualty responses. In keeping with our mission we will not bill any patient that receives care from our 100% volunteer team or is transported in our ambulance. |
| How will you attract community buy-in for your project? | We plan to involve the media when we launch our Ambulance Service and our commitment to never bill our patients will increase community buy in. We estimate that a wilderness trauma patient could save $5,000 - $10,000 for an Advanced Life Support transport. |
| Name | Lt. Andrew Voss |
| Contact Information | andy.voss@chcrs.org, 423-309-9922 |
| Name | Chief Buddy Lane |
| Contact Information | buddy.lane@chcrs.org, 423-240-0516 |
| Name | Asst. Chief Brian Krebs |
| Contact Information | brian.krebs@chcrs.org, 615-804-8374 |
| Name | Jay Bell |
| Contact Information | jay.bell@chcrs.org, 423-760-1066 |
| Is there anything else you would like us to know about your project? | The ventilator and cardiac monitor requested work together to provide excellent patient care. The environment in which our volunteers typically work makes manually ventilating patients difficult. The ventilator will enable patients to be properly ventilated even while being hauled up a cliff or through tight cave passages. The cardiac monitor has the ability to defibrillate automatically and manually, provide extremal cardiac pacing, monitor cardiac rhythm, pulse oximetry, blood pressure, end tidal CO2 and other advanced life support monitoring features. A quote for this equipment is available upon request. |