Volunteer Heart Resuscitation Unit and Ambulance Corps of Staten Isla

A VOLUNTEER AMBULANCE SQUAD THAT PROVIDES PRE-HOSPITAL EMERGENCY MEDICAL CARE FOR THE SICK AND INJURED CITIZENS OF STATEN ISLAND.

Affordable pre-hospital care for our community and provide them with on-going educational programs.

Goal One: Increase availability of our services to the community.

Goal Two: Provide standby health coverage to a greater number of events in the community.

Goal Three: Further invest in fundraising and recruitment efforts to grow the capacity to provide services.

Volunteer Heart Ambulance has sent Board Members to Board Leadership training. We have also sent Officers to leadership & Train the Trainer courses to further their ability to do their job. As members of the Staten Island not for Profit Association (SINPA) our senior leadership has multiple resources to available them that offer leadership development.

The changes have been the increased demand for our services, new areas of responsibilities for EMTs, the time spent on each call due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the inability to recruit and retain volunteers. In response to community need, we expanded the type of services that we provided. As Covid-19 vaccines became available for distribution, some of our EMTs served as vaccinators at Point of Dispensing (POD) sites. This required additional training. In addition, our EMTs provided staffing with emergency coverage at PODs. This limited the number of EMTs available to respond to emergencalls. We experienced an increase of calls and the time needed to return to service after each call. The time spent on each call was increased due to the need to take additional precautions prior to and after patient contact. spending time donning and doffing their PPE. When a patient is transported to a hospital, the time necessary to transfer care to the receiving facility is often extended due the increase of lack of beds in the emergency departments; EMTs must remain on site until the patient is accepted. Then the crew is required to complete decontamination of their ambulance before becoming available for the next emergency call. This results in an increase of time spent on each call thereby creating the risk of reducing availability to respond to other emergency calls. Transporting of patients is our major source of income for our budget, which is impacted by fewer calls. The need for PPE and cleaning supplies in our daily operations also puts our budget at risk. Our ability to recruit and maintain volunteers is a growing risk. For multiple reasons caused by the pandemic, people are concerned about exposure to the Covid-19 virus, especially. We have seen a decrease in the number of people volunteering as well as members choosing to leave due to Covid-19. Without volunteers the risk to our organization is that we will not be able to provide the care our community needs.