Denver Ambulance 2009 Year End Report

By Rod Diercks 

          At the November meeting of The Denver Ambulance Service election of officers were held.  For 2010:  Crew Chief - Marty Elbert, Assistant Crew Chief - Rod Diercks, Treasurer - Dawn Lau, Secretary - Jen Happel, Training Officer - Amy Gehrke and Maintenance Chief - Chuck Hay.  The E-Boards Manager Appointments:  Billing Clerk - David Ryherd, Schedule Manager - Dennis Thurm, Equipment Manager - Lantz Terrill, Advanced Care Manager - Teresa Diercks and Data Collection - Rod Diercks.  DAS belongs to Bremer and Black Hawk County EMS Associations.  Amy Gehrke will represent Denver in Black Hawk County and Rod Diercks will represent Denver in Bremer County.

 

Year 2009 was not much different than previous years.  Our total run count was down a little with 177 calls for service and we saw 166 patients.  During the year we assisted Janesville and Readlyn First Responders and Fire Departments along with out own Denver Fire Department as standby during structure fires.  Other departments that we assist are Oran First Responders, Tripoli, Fairbank and Waverly Ambulance Services.  Some types of calls that we respond to range from sometimes just talking to someone to serious life threatening medical emergencies or trauma injuries.

 

From the time that we get paged for a call from the County Dispatch to going enroute is an average 4.2 minutes.  The average time it takes us to respond from the station to the scene is 3.6 minutes.  Our average scene time was 17.5 minutes.

 

The ambulance service does do more than just respond to emergency calls.  We have 2 CPR instructors, Marty Elbert and Shirley Mihm.  They both hold classes through out the year to certify the public in CPR.  Marty also holds training for business's to certify their employees in training and with an automatic defibrillator along with CPR training.  Their service also does stand-by at athletic events and is always vigilant during the town celebration in August.

 

Denver Ambulance has a good cross section of medically trained personnel.  We have 2 drivers, 1 First Responder, 5 EMT-Basic, 3 EMT-Intermediates, 2 Paramedic Specialist, 1 Critical Care Paramedic, 2 EMT Basic/Nurse Exception and 1 EMT  Intermediate/Nurse Exception.  The Nurse Exceptions can function as paramedics.  As always Denver Ambulance is looking for new members.  Being an EMT is not for everybody.  Many long hours of training go into becoming a good EMT.  Many many more hours are needed for each level up in certification.  Along with all of that we all have to keep up on continuing education hours.  If you are already an EMT at any level or if you are not an EMT and would like to join our crew just contact any crew for more information.