Grant to MaineHealth EMS ambulance services supports training, recruitment, equipment in greater Franklin County

The service, a department of MaineHealth Franklin, was formerly known as NorthStar EMS.

You are able to gift 5 more articles this month.

Anyone can access the link you share with no account required. Learn more.

With a Lewiston Sun Journal subscription, you can gift 5 articles each month.

It looks like you do not have any active subscriptions. To get one, go to the subscriptions page.

With a Lewiston Sun Journal subscription, you can gift 5 articles each month.

Drawings of the name, graphics and colors for MaineHealth Emergency Medical Services Franklin ambulances are shown Sept. 18 at a Wilton Select Board meeting. Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal

FARMINGTON — MaineHealth Emergency Medical Services ambulance services is using a recent two-year $400,000 federal grant for training, continuing education and buying medical equipment.

The grant has made a difference in training and recruitment and helping get equipment, Stephen Smith, director of MaineHealth EMS ambulance services in the greater Franklin County, said last week in an interview at MaineHealth Franklin Hospital.

Smith is also director of MaineHealth EMS in the coastal area.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced Sept. 18 that four emergency medical services providers would receive a total of $793,953. Maine Health EMS ambulance service, a department of MaineHealth Franklin Hospital in the Farmington area, received a two-year grant for $200,000 each year for recruitment, training, continuing education and buying medical-related equipment.

Stephen Smith, director of MaineHealth EMS in greater Franklin County and the coastal area, left, explains the name of the ambulance service formally known as NorthStar EMS to the Wilton Select Board in September. Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal file

MaineHealth EMS, formally known as NorthStar EMS, has received four grant awards since 2020 totaling $800,000.

The latest grant is through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration Supporting and Improving Rural EMS.

The Healthy Community Coalition of Greater Franklin in Farmington, also a department of MaineHealth, assists in writing the grants and managing it, Smith said.

The grants for this year and next will help the greater Franklin County agency plan for: more emergency medical and emergency responder classes; another conference in 2025; equipment purchases; continue to pay for free open access medical education for resuscitation and training; and pay for wilderness emergency medical technician courses for current staff members.

Franklin County is designated “very rural” with a population density of 18.1 people per square mile, with 11 towns medically underserved.

The grant helps train people in mental health and substance abuse awareness, provide responders or technicians with resource packets to patients, and give referrals on the process, if the patient is interested.

Over the four years the service has received the grant, 26 people in the Franklin County area took free emergency medical technician courses and several of those have passed and been licensed in the state, Smith said. Five of them were hired in Franklin County by MaineHealth, he said.

“We’ve put 18 people through emergency medical responder courses,” he said. They have learned about splinting, bleeding, oxygen and other medical sources.

Several people have also taken emergency medical responder classes and are working in first responder agencies such as a fire department and many emergency medical technicians or responders have continued their education in those fields.

In the 2023 grant, 460 hours of continuing education was provided online with a subscription to Free Open Access Medical Education for resuscitation and training.

The grant has provided resources for Naloxone training and airway management training. The grants have also provided money for swift water rescue training, and two free two-day emergency medical conferences.

In the two-day conference at Franklin Hospital in the 2021-22 grant, there were 35 attendees and 16 classes offered and two tracks, 20 hours of continued education and the medical staff was able to recruit two staff members.

The following was purchased through the grant for training and/or use:

• Airway mannequin.

• Low-fidelity simulation mannequin.

• Four video laryngoscopes.

• Stokes basket for carrying patients out of the back country.

• New back county gear bags.

• iPads.

Also purchased with extra funding was a powered stair chair and a power load system for moving patients up and down stairs or into ambulances.

MaineHealth EMS in the Farmington area has five ambulance bases in Carrabassett Valley, Rangeley, Farmington, Phillips and Livermore. It covers five counties including all of Franklin and parts of Androscoggin, Oxford, Kennebec and Somerset counties.

We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is found on our FAQs. You can modify your screen name here.

Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday as well as limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve.

Please sign into your Sun Journal account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe. Questions? Please see our FAQs.

Your commenting screen name has been updated.

Send questions/comments to the editors.

« Previous

;