Lake George, NY – On Friday, January 16 and Saturday, January 17, the University of Vermont Health Network - Elizabethtown Community Hospital hosted a special emergency medical skills course for students of its Paramedic Education Program and local Emergency Medical Services (EMS) providers. Donations from the Adirondack Health Institute (AHI), Adirondack Rural Health Network (ARHN), and Hudson-Mohawk Area Health Education Center (AHEC) helped fund the course, which included a cadaver lab.

“This was a unique and important training opportunity for EMS providers in our region. Not everyone has the chance to learn human anatomy and emergency medical procedures this way,” said the UVM Health Network - Paramedic Education Program Director Bruce Barry. “We could not have offered this course without the generous support of our partners at AHI, ARHN, and Hudson-Mohawk AHEC.”

More than 150 EMS providers from Northern New York, Albany, and New York City attended the training. The total cost of the two-day emergency medical skills course was $18,200; tuition was free for all who participated.

Mountain Lakes Regional EMS Council Executive Director Travis Howe said the training attracted about 15% of the active EMS clinicians in Warren, Washington, Essex, Franklin, and Clinton Counties. “The procedural anatomy cadaver lab not only reached the UVM Health Network - Elizabethtown Community Hospital paramedic students, but also dozens of other EMS professionals within the Mountain Lakes Region. The course gave them the opportunity to advance their knowledge and hone low frequency but life-saving skills, in a way our training manikins will not allow. We are thankful for the tissue donors, and for the efforts made by the paramedic education program staff and visiting lab faculty.”

According to the Mountain Lakes Regional EMS Council, there are roughly 1,000 EMS providers for the nearly 300,000 residents of five-county region.

EMS training opportunities are limited in the area. Basic Emergency Medical Technician training is offered about four to five times per year and, until the UVM Health Network - Elizabethtown Community Hospital launched its paramedic education program in 2018, there had not been Paramedic level EMS training in the region.  

The University of Vermont Health Network - Elizabethtown Community Hospital Paramedic Education Program is the first New York State Department of Health accredited program in the region. The 16-month program was launched in 2018 to address a shortage of local paramedic education opportunities. For more information, please visit https://www.ech.org/Departments-and-Programs/Paramedic-Program/.

###

About Elizabethtown Community Hospital

The University of Vermont Health Network - Elizabethtown Community Hospital is a designated critical access hospital and the primary health care provider serving the 39,000 people who live, work and vacation in Essex County, NY and the surrounding region.

Elizabethtown Community Hospital is transforming rural health care at its main campus in Elizabethtown, NY, at a new emergency department and outpatient center at the former Moses Ludington Hospital in Ticonderoga, NY, and at six community-based primary health care centers located throughout the region.  The hospital is one of the community’s largest employers with 383 employees.

Across the Elizabethtown and Ticonderoga campuses, the hospital maintains two 24-hour emergency rooms, a 25-bed inpatient unit, physical therapy, laboratory, and digital radiology departments, and a variety of specialty physician clinics on a weekly and monthly basis.  

Elizabethtown Community Hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission and is licensed and certified by the New York State Department of Health and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

About The University of Vermont Health Network
The University of Vermont Health Network is an academic health system that is comprised of six affiliate hospitals, a multi-specialty medical group, and a home health agency. We serve the residents of Vermont and northern New York with a shared mission: working together, we improve people’s lives.  Our partners include:

• The University of Vermont Medical Center  
• The University of Vermont Health Network Medical Group
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Alice Hyde Medical Center
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Elizabethtown Community Hospital
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Porter Medical Center
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Home Health and Hospice

Our 4,000 health care professionals are driven to provide high quality, cost-efficient care as close to home as possible. Strengthened by our academic connection to the University of Vermont, each of our hospitals remains committed to its local community by providing compassionate, personal care shaped by the latest medical advances and delivered by highly skilled experts.