Community Ambulance Selected for Pilot Program

The Community Ambulance Company is participating in a pilot program to allow Emergency Medical Technician-Basics to administer the live-saving medication called Naloxone Hydrochloride (Narcan).

Members of Community Ambulance will now be able to quickly provide an antidote to heroin or prescription painkiller overdoses, a treatment currently restricted to Advanced Life Support providers This now makes this life saving drug available to all of our medically trained volunteers.

According to Jamie Atkinson, chief of Community Ambulance Company, “This drug will dramatically increase the survival rate of anyone who is found suffering from an opiate overdose. This drug is another tool in our members belts to make a positive difference in the community.”

Every Community Ambulance vehicle will be stocked with Narcan ready to be administered by members on overdose calls. The naloxone hydrochloride drug can be given through injection or inhaler, and completely reverses the effects of opioids within minutes.

In accordance with the guidelines of the pilot program, Community Ambulance, along with the Suffolk County Department of Health, will review the effectiveness of the Narcan administrations over a two-year time period to recommend whether it should be extended further. The County has said the number of deaths involving non-heroin opiates — mostly prescription painkillers — increased seventy percent between the years 2004 and 2011. Community Ambulance responded to more than 150 overdose alarms between March 2011 and March 2012.