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Department Reports <br />Human Rights <br />Deputy Director Paetznick mentioned the upcoming 2010 Human Rights Day Conference on <br />December 3rd. Commissions Haring and Kroll indicated their interest in attending. This <br />information will be forwarded to all Commissioners via email. <br />Allina Medical <br />Mr. Dave Matteson, Allina Medical, reported that ten new paramedics just started, they are <br />currently interviewing for ten more paramedics, and plans are to hire ten more in the spring. The <br />majority of these are internal candidates that have experience with the Allina system as EMTs. <br />Commissioner Bredenbeck inquired about the educational requirements for EMS staff Mr. <br />Matteson explained that a Paramedic completes a two-year college program versus an EMT- <br />Basic that only does a 150-hour course. Mr. Matteson reported that Allina Medic.l I <br />Transportation has been making these personnel hires to reduce overtime; they currently incur <br />about 2,000 overtime hours during every two-week period. Their North Metro Operations <br />handle about 200 calls for service daily. They also cut overtime for special events during the <br />summer (including Stockyard Days) and have instead been relying on duty crews for coverage of <br />these events. <br />Mr. Matteson advised that they are purchasing eight new ambulances next year, with some of <br />their current units having more than 200,000 miles. Other budgeted capital expenditures include <br />software upgrades for the mobile charting program, new cardiac monitors (60 units @ $20,000 <br />each) and "power cots" that raise patients automatically to save on personnel back injuries. <br />He also stated that Allina is educating nursing homes (including Benedictine and New Brighton <br />Health & Rehab in our city) on contacting their dispatch directly for non-emergent transportation <br />of patients so that Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances and police/fire First Responders do <br />not need to respond via a 911 call but rather a Basic Life Support (BLS) unit can handle these as <br />a routine response. <br />Commissioner Allen inquired about response time data from Allina. Mr. Matteson reported that <br />he hopes to have that information available at next month's meeting. <br />Volunteers in Public Safety (YIPS) <br />Commissioner Woods was not in attendance but Commissioner Kerns reported the following: <br />o The new VIPS liaison is Officer Trevor Hamdorf. <br />o VIPS collected 25 units of blood at their last American Red Cross Blood Drive, with ten of <br />those being double red-cell donations. <br />o The next Red Cross Blood Drive will be November 3rd <br />0 17 VIPS were in attendance at their meeting last night.