Students propose ambulance service for U. campus area

It can take up to 30 minutes for an ambulance to respond to an emergency call at the University. College seniors Todd Fruchterman and Suzanne Sims have submitted a plan to the University to establish the service, which would cover the entire University community and would be combined with a University Police response. The project would need $190,000 to $205,000 to purchase an ambulance, a supervisor's vehicle, emergency medical equipment, uniforms, insurance, communications equipment and to train 20 people in emergency lifesaving techniques. The University is also asked to pay the Penncorps supervisor. In 1990, University Police received 902 calls for medical transport. Of these, police handled 871 and 92 were handled by Philadelphia Rescue Units. These 92 calls had an average response time of 11 minutes -- far too long, according to Fruchterman. "To wait 11 minutes when HUP is two blocks away is ludicrous," he said. According to Fruchterman and Sims, the response to the Penncorps concept has been positive and they expect a decision from the University in December. Fruchterman said one way to fund Penncorps would be to add a EMS surcharge of $5 to the General Fee. In addition, he said, Philadelphia is considering asking the University to pay for city services "and one of these services is indeed ambulance care." Penncorps also would save money for the University by taking over private ambulance contracts for major University events like football games and Spring Fling where an ambulance is always on call. Sims said the service would allow University Police to concentrate on crime prevention rather than having to ferry students to HUP. "While the police are trained in first aid, a lot are not EMTs [trained for emergency care] and you can't always just put students in the back of a police car," said Sims. "The police are doing a great job with what they have, but Penn students deserve the best service they can get." Fruchterman and Sims are both EMT-certified by both New York and Pennsylvania. They have been involved in pre-hospital care for four and five years, respectively. Fruchterman is also a Nationally Registered EMT and an American Heart Association CPR instructor. Both students plan to attend Medical School next year and they see Penncorps as a great opportunity for pre-meds. "Pre-hospital care helps people to become doctors by giving them a better understanding of the mechanism of emergency transport," said Fruchterman. "It's also a great form of community service." If Penncorps is approved, Fruchterman said that he hopes to recruit 50 to 75 EMTs to staff the corps. "We'll shoot heavily for already-trained EMTs and also freshman and sophomores to provide us with a good base of operations," he said. Training would be done through the PennSTAR Trauma/Flight Program at HUP. Each semester, Penncorps would sponsor EMT training as well as defensive driving, advanced life saving, and CPR courses for students who would like to become drivers or attendants. "Pennsylvania requires 125 hours of training for EMT certification, but we'll fit it into one semester, something like two nights a week, to make it easy to fit into people's schedules," said Fruchterman. In July, Fruchterman drafted a letter to Assistant to the President Nicholas Constan. Constan said last week he liked the plan, but added that it would be "very expensive." Student Health Services Director Marjeanne Collins said that she expects Penncorps to be given "very serious consideration." "I think it's a good proposal, both well-researched and thought out," she said. Collins said she favors establishing either a transport service for the sick and injured or an ambulance corps. One of the main supporters of Penncorps is University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich. "If successful, the plan would provide a public service which really could be beneficial," Kuprevich said. "It would bring health service to campus to prevent overburdening the Philadelphia emergency service." Kuprevich offered to let Penncorps be based in the proposed police headquarters on 40th and Walnut streets and to help coordinate radio communications and dispatching. When he was at Brown University, Kuprevich supported the development of a volunteer ambulance response group. Today, Brown EMS has 57 active members, 50 of whom are undergraduates. Similar programs have been successful at other schools as well, including the State University of New York at Stony Brook. According to Harry Mavromatidis, chief of the Stony Brook Ambulance Corps, the organization handles over 700 calls per year. "We have been extremely successful at providing emergency care to this area," said Mavromatidis. The ambulance corps features 24-hour service and an average response time of three to four minutes. "We usually have a crew out on the road in under a minute," he said.

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