RIT Ambulance

RIT Ambulance

File:Ritapatch.jpg
Established	1981
Headquarters	RIT campus
Jurisdiction	RIT campus and property (excluding Park Point at RIT and the RIT Inn and Conference Center)
Employees	65
BLS or ALS	BLS
Ambulances	1
Fly-cars	1
Director	E. Cassandra Jordan
Medical director	Brooke Durland, MD
Responses	about 700
Website	ambulance.rit.edu

RIT Ambulance (RITA) is a New York State Certified Ambulance Corps, run as a student organization at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The ambulance serves the entire Rochester Institute of Technology campus and portions of surrounding Henrietta, New York.

RIT Ambulance provides coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week throughout the year, except during institute closing during Christmas break. The ambulance is staffed on a volunteer basis by students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

History

Template:Histinfo In 1981, RIT's Student Safety team became a certified ambulance corps known as RIT Emergency Medical Unit. It has since been renamed to RIT Ambulance.

For many years the RIT Ambulance Corps was only dispatched to emergencies by RIT Public Safety, but in 1993 became a Monroe County EMS subscriber. Subscription to the Monroe County system served to ensure that 9-1-1 calls on the RIT Campus would be appropriately routed to RIT Ambulance Corps rather than to the Henrietta Ambulance.

Organizational Structure

RIT Ambulance is governed by a constitution which defines two different organizational divisions. The Executive Board is the primary body for organizational oversight and personnel management. The Operations Staff is in charge of handling the day to day issues of the ambulance corps. The structure of these groups are listed below.

The Executive Board is elected by the membership. Positions are filled annually or as vacancies occur. The only member of the Operations Staff that is directly elected by the membership is the Chief of Operations. The Chief is then responsible for appointing well qualified personnel to the Operations Staff, including the Deputy Chief, Lieutenants, and Training Director. Members then vote to ratify these appointments at the next monthly membership meeting.

Meetings are held for both bodies on a regular basis. Generally, the Executive Board meets on a weekly basis while the Operations Staff holds meetings on a bi-weekly basis. The meetings are open to all that choose to attend except for small portions of closed discussion on private and sensitive issues.

Membership

RIT Ambulance membership is open to RIT students, faculty and staff. While anyone can be a member, a great deal of training and commitment is required to become cleared in a position. Members who have cleared are assigned a radio identifier and are allowed to work without a trainer on the ambulance or first response vehicle.

Positions

RIT Ambulance members work in at least one of several areas:

Observer

Observers are basic members of the RIT Ambulance corps. Observers receive blood borne pathogen training and are certified in basic CPR. Observers are typically new members working on qualifications in another area.

Driver

Drivers are responsible for safely operating the ambulance in both emergency and non-emergency capacity. Drives to a scene, assists with patient care, and transports to the hospital.

Dispatcher

Dispatchers coordinate communications between the RIT Ambulance personnel, additional responding units, RIT's Public Safety department, and the Monroe County EMS dispatcher.

Medic

Medics are directly responsible for patient care. Medics must be listed as an EMT Basic in New York before being allowed to participate in patient care.

Medical Command Officer

Medical Command Offiers, or MCOs, are responsible for handling any operational issues during their shift. The MCO also responds to calls meeting specific criteria including: more than one ambulance is responding or triage is required, HAZMAT incidents, confirmed structure fire(s) on campus, motor vehicle accident with reported people trapped, vehicle overturned, or RIT Ambulance vehicle involved. An MCO may also respond to any RIT Ambulance call at his or her discretion, but will likely not engage in patient care unless requested to do so or under extreme circumstances.

Training

in the Ambulance corps. Members must work through various stages of qualification, with each stage having additional training and added responsibility. Typically, a member would progress through the following stages:

Probationary Trainee

Probationary Trainees have had a minimal amount of training and may not accompany a qualified personnel on a response.

Trainee

Trainees have completed additional training, and may accompany qualified personnel on responses.

Apprentice

Apprentices have completed all required training, but have not yet participated in enough responses or had enough experience to be recognized by the Operations Staff.

Qualified

Qualified members have completed all training, and are approved to operate autonomously.

Trainer

Trainers are qualified members, often with experience from outside of the RIT Ambulance, who instruct RITA members on operation and

Anyone not qualified in a position generally accompanys a qualified Medic as a trainee until qualified. There are varying levels of training and clearance as outlined in the unit's Standard Operating Procedures.

Vehicles

RIT Defib 63, with RIT 6359 in the background.

RIT Ambulance operates two emergency vehicles

Name	Year	Vehicle Info	Unit Type
6359	2006	Road Rescue Metro Medic	Transport Ambulance
Defib 63	2001	Chevrolet Tahoe	First Response Vehicle

Both vehicles carry a variety of medical supplies and equipment including oxygen, defibrillators, atropine, albuterol, aspirin and epinephrine which allow life saving response to emergencies.

Relations with other emergency organizations

RIT Ambulance receives its right to function from the New York State Department of Health, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and the RIT Student Health Center.

RIT Ambulance responds to all medical emergencies on RIT's campus.RIT Ambulance also honors a limited mutual aid agreement with Henrietta Volunteer Ambulance which allows it to assist as a backup responder when Henrietta ambulances are unavailable. RIT Ambulance is also a member of the National Collegiate EMS Foundation.

External links

• RIT Ambulance website
  • Constitution