Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is in the process of working to realign as a training site to provide certification of basic and advanced life support courses in the St. Thomas-St. John District, according to a press release issued Wednesday by the V.I. Department of Health (DOH). The move follows the American Heart Association’s termination of a long-standing agreement with DOH..
Health Commissioner Darice Plaskett said that EMS recently applied for recertification as an American Heart Association (AHA) International Training Center, but its application was denied in April 2013.
“The deactivation of the training center means that DOH has experienced a temporary halt to training conducted by EMS’ training instructors and other instructors associated with the EMS Training Center,” Plaskett said.
The trainings that are affected by the loss of AHA credentialing are Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), and Pediatric Advance Life Support (PALS) in the St. Thomas-St. John District.
“This temporary interruption in training will affect healthcare providers, residents and community organizations needing to be trained in life support courses ranging from basic CPR to advanced cardiac life support,” the commissioner said.“Additionally, I want to reassure the community that the Emergency Medical Services staff is not affected as they can be certified by DOH’s Emergency Medical Director in accordance with the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) guidelines.”
Plaskett emphasized that the training site on St. Croix is aligned with a training center on the mainland.
“The training site on St. Croix continues its work without interruption, and its trainers will be utilized to provide instruction in the St. Thomas-St. John District in the interim as needed. Additionally, one of our available options is to align the St. Thomas-St. John training site with the mainland training center with which St. Croix is aligned,” she said.
Plaskett said that as the realignment is formalized, the training classes will resume and healthcare professionals, community organizations and residents will once again be able to be certified or recertified by the Department’s EMS Division.
“Upon learning of the AHA termination, I directed the leadership staff of EMS to immediately contact other organizations with comparable recognized certifications to establish an agreement that will allow the St. Thomas training center to conduct classes under its seal of approval,” she said. “l am committed to ensuring that healthcare professionals and the community have access to the various certification programs.”
We recognize that healthcare providers, residents and community organizations have been challenged in receiving certification and recertification in BLS, ACLS and PALS, and we are working aggressively to restore our training center’s AHA designation. I want to assure the community that at no time were residents’ lives in jeopardy by our men and women who provide pre-hospital care, as our EMTs skill-checks were verified and approved by the EMS Medical Director, who has the authority to certify the training of EMTs in the territory; additionally the certification of the EMTs by the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) has remained intact.”
