CCPT Provides EMS Coverage for the Goody's Cool Orange 500 Race

There's never a dull moment for the crews at CCPT and this weekend was no exception. Carilion Clinic Patient Transportation once again provided full EMS coverage for the NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway. Our duties include coverage for the entire infield area, including a fully staffed critical care ambulance stationed at the care center, on-site medevac coverage by Carilion Clinic Life-Guard, and complete EMS coverage for the grandstands and remainder of the Speedway grounds. Carilion Clinic also staffs a stand-alone medical tent (STIP) staffed by physicians, nurses, and other ancillary hospital staff.
Carilion Clinic was the proud sponsor of Pole Day (see below where N.L. Bishop, V.P. and Chief Milton Graham presented the Pole Day award on Friday).
A huge thanks to all of our staff who worked so hard to make the weekend such a success. We will see you at the next race!

Carilion Clinic Life-Guard 11 Visits VCOM Students

The Life-Guard 11 crew recently made a PR visit to the VT Airport to present a landing zone class for the VA College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) students. These types of educational visits are a favorite for the Life-Guard crews because it allows them to spend time showing others all of the capabilities on-board our Carlion Clinic helicopters. As you can see below, it's also fun for the students to get an up close and personal look inside the aircraft! (Thanks to Michael Buscher for the pics).

Carilion Clinic's Level 1 Cardiac Care: Life-Guard Crew Extends Training to Bedford

The Carilion Clinic Life-Guard crew was on the road again in Bedford last night. They, along with Dr. Paul Frantz, delivered another Regional Field Heart Alert Program to a group of Bedford EMS providers and 911 Communication Specialists. The program educates both the prehospital field providers as well as emergency dispatchers how to recognize ST-elevation M.I. (STEMI) patients in the field and ensure that they are rapidly transferred to the Level 1 Cardiac Care team at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Whether the patients arrive by air or ground, our Level 1 cardiac team is prepared to deliver the life-saving interventions that save valuable cardiac muscle. A huge thanks to all of our EMS partners who are taking the time to participate in this valuable training!









If your EMS crew or Communications Center is interested in scheduling a Regional Field Heart Alert program for your area, please contact our Business Development office at (540) 981-8303.

Carilion Clinic Patient Transportation's Communication Center Benchmarks at Starbucks

Recently, CCPT's Communication Center Team visited Starbucks and benchmarked how they give superior service and consistently make excellent products. The group reviewed sections of the book, The Starbucks Experience, by Joseph A. Michelli.
They discussed the parallels of providing emergency medical dispatch and communications to Carilion Clinic's helicopters/ambulances and Starbucks. Some of the parallels were: customer service, communication, standardized training, focus on the product or service, and teamwork.
CCPT's Communication Center will field approximately 50,000 calls for transport this year. The communication center is responsible for emergency communications for Carilion Clinic Life-Guard (emergency medical helicopters Life-Guard 10 and 11) and 35+ ambulances over 9 locations in the region.

CCPT Delivers EMS Training at National NASCAR Summit

Several members of our Administration team recently were asked to present at the National NASCAR Track Services Summit in Concord, NC. Allan Belcher, Director and Jeff McKinney, Manager gave a presentation on Airway Management of NASCAR drivers.
This included an actual demo of how to manage difficult airway situations for the injured drivers inside of the NASCAR vehicles. They also presented a study on the effects of carbon monoxide on drivers and crews at the track events.
Our OMD, Dr. Carol Gilbert, gave a presentation on "Medical Management of Spectators". Carilion Clinic Patient Transportation has gained a lot of national attention based upon our EMS coverage at the Martinsville Speedway. We are excited to be entering our third year in providing both ground and air EMS coverage for the Martinsville track events-stay tuned for updates from this year's races!

Carilion Clinic Patient Transportation Responds to Assist Local Emergency

When CCPT received the call last week that there was a potential shooter on the campus of Ferrum College, we immediately deployed resources to help with the Regional EMS response. Per Franklin County's request, 2 of our ambulances were relocated to assist with 911 coverage in the Franklin County response area, while a third ambulance was staged at Ferrum Rescue Squad. Fortunately, there were no victims that day, but it served as a good practice run for all EMS and law enforcement agencies in the area. It's always great to see the how well our regional agencies pull together in times of crisis.
See video from WSLS covering how Carilion Franklin Memorial was prepared for the potential mass casualty incident.

Carilion Clinic Announces New Westlake Center

The CCPT Ground and Air Divisions were honored to participate in Carilion's media event earlier today to announce plans for the Westlake Center, scheduled to open in Spring 2009. The new facility will include a base location for our CCPT Westlake ground crew as well as a helipad for our Life-Guard helicopters to utilize.
Members of Franklin County Public Safety and Scruggs Fire & Rescue were also on hand for the big announcement. Thanks to Carilion Clinic, part of the land will also be donated for a new Public Safety facility for Franklin County. We are excited to be a part of this commitment to extend our emergency services into the Smith Mountain Lake Community. Stay tuned to local news coverage tonight for details from today's event. Also, check out the Carilion Clinic Blog for more details and photos from today (including video of Life-Guard 10 taking off from the site).