News

Shovels and Sleds: How Boston EMS Works Through the Storm

O'Ryan Johnson, Richard Weir and Jack Encarnacao

01/27/2015

Jan. 27--If you need a hospital in this blizzard, Boston's EMS medics will get you there. On a sled, if they have to.

"Every ambulance has shovels and med sleds," Boston EMS chief James Hooley said. "We used them back in 2013 during Nemo."

As the city's massive health-care infrastructure geared up for the blizzard, Hooley deployed extra ambulances -- 28 instead of the usual 24. He put 25 recruits on board with the medics -- not yet qualified to care for patients, but there to help with an extra set of hands.

"It's much more labor-intensive," Hooley said of working in a blizzard. "You may be walking farther. Cleaning snow. Even simple calls have the potential to become difficult."

Hooley said supervisors' trucks have four-wheel drive in the event crews need to get to a patient on an unplowed road.

Meanwhile, the city's major hospitals yesterday were busy converting conference rooms into makeshift dorms for nurses and doctors as the blizzard forced people off the roads.

Erin McDonough of Brigham and Women's Hospital said, "They are not luxurious accommodations. People will be sleeping side-by-side, but this is what doctors and nurses do to make sure they can care for their patients."

Dr. Erik Goralnick, Brigham's director of emergency preparedness, said some doctors who live nearby snowshoe or cross-country ski to work as they have in past blizzards.

Paul Biddinger, director of Massachusetts General Hospital's Emergency Department, said his staff started preparing Sunday, determining what scheduled procedures could be deferred.

"We think our plans are in as good a shape as they possibly can be," Biddinger said. "This is not our first snowstorm, and we've been doing this for years. We think that we've made the right number of resources available."