BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — While cities like Tulsa heal after the gut-wrenching mass shooting, medical professionals in Buffalo hope to change the way modern health care is delivered.
They want to prepare health care workers for major events that involve many people being injured, and it is all being done thanks to a partnership between the American Medical Response (AMR) and the University at Buffalo MD (UBMD).
This is a new approach to meet modern-day medical needs.
"This essential program now allows our physicians to respond to on-scene medical direction to the professional paramedics of AMR," UBMD Emergency Medicine president, Dr. Robert McCormack said.
AMR is now joining forces with UBMD Emergency Medicine for an innovative new program. The partnership will provide Western New York with a network of emergency medical physicians who can respond to mass casualty incidents.
UB Jacobs School of Medicine dean, Dr. Allison Brashear said, "Because of their specialized training, they can perform in real-time, on-site, assessments, care, on the scene medication and direction, outside the scope of the standard EMS."
"Take for example, a motor vehicle accident involving a loaded school bus. A doctor on scene at such an incident can help identity and stabilize patients with life-threatening. That same physician can also clear at the scene patients who do not require transport to a hospital thereby reducing the burdens of an already taxed health system," Global Medicine Response (GMR) president of northeast region, Thomas Maxian said.
This team of medical professionals will work on a 24/7 on-call schedule to ensure someone is always ready to respond.
Doctor McCormack said, "This team approach calls for advanced emergency care in critical life or death situations. It also allows for appropriate de-escalation during large mass casualty events, where maybe walking wounded do not need to go to emergency departments and can be treated at the scene."
Each physician involved will have access to emergency response vehicles equipped with advanced cardiac life support, communications equipment and a refrigeration unit for medications.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said, "The physician and medical response team is going to be a critical vehicle to save lives in our community when there are major medical emergency situations in Buffalo and Western New York."
There's no cost to patients who use the program or tax payers, according to AMR
