New Wisc. EMS Training Center to be Regional Draw

Sept. 14--JANESVILLE -- Former operating rooms in the basement of a medical building along the Rock River will soon be a regional draw to train first responders and law enforcement to provide medical treatment faster during mass shootings and other trauma events.

The 25,000-square-feet of space in the MercyCare Building, formerly the Dean Riverview Clinic, is set to open next month as a training ground for all agencies under MercyRockford Health System, including nine Illinois counties, as well as others outside the area.

One of the main focuses is based on a hot topic in EMS called Rescue Task Force.

It's "the answer to society's cry that EMS can't stand outside and wait," said Dr. Christopher Wistrom, associate EMS medical director. "You can't wait for the scene to be safe anymore in some of these situations."

The idea is to use every responder--from a volunteer EMT to a paramedic--when something happens at X location, Wistrom said.

"It's getting them closer to the X," he said. "It's how to work with the law enforcement on duty that day to get themselves in near the X without becoming a target themselves to treat people as close to the place of the injury as possible to deliver that life-saving care faster and ultimately to save more lives. It accepts a little more risk."

Wisconsin is requiring two hours of such training in responders' refresher training, but agencies under Mercy's direction will be required to have four hours.

The center also is expected to attract departments from across the state, the northern half of Illinois and west to Iowa.

"If you look across the region, there's just nothing like this," said Dr. Jay MacNeal, EMS medical director.

The center includes four former operating rooms along with pre-op and post-op, a locker room and bathrooms. Mercy is investing about $250,000 for training equipment and materials to convert the rooms into many common scenes.

The set-ups will include classrooms, a church, a theater, an office/business, an emergency room, and a residence that includes a master suite, kitchen and large living room that has three entrances--a "terrible room to clear," Wistrom said.

"When you look at this from the law enforcement perspective, this is a terrible room to try to come in and clear it," he said while pointing to the multiple exits.

One of the cool features of the area is the stairwell that can be accessed from outside, he said, because stairwells can be problematic during a threat.

"Our overall goal in outfitting this space is to try to make it as diverse as possible, as real as possible and as useful as possible for training," Wistrom said.

While the spaces will look similar to everyday life, it becomes more dramatic when role players, instructors or volunteers are screaming, gunshots are going off in the background and a training mannequin is bleeding out on the floor.

The centerpiece of the training is Caesar, a $150,000 patient simulator that blinks digital eyes, yells in pain, can bleed to death and offers people a chance to practice applying a tourniquet--something not possible on a real person.

On a recent day, blood spurted out of the bottom of Caesar's right leg, cut off at the knee, and blood gurgled out of a deep gouge below his left knee. He groaned in pain and yelled, "I could use some pain medication!"

The blood flow stopped as a trainer tightened a tourniquet at the top of his left leg.

Caesar is used primarily in military training; only one other simulator is in civilian hands in the U.S., Wistrom said. He comes with multiple arms, legs and injuries.

Along with Rescue Task Force, the center will focus on training in two other main areas:

-- Tactical EMT, which trains EMTs how to operate within a SWAT team structure to address the specific needs of the special weapons and tactics responders.

The Beloit Police Department is the only county agency to include a tactical EMT. The Rock County Sheriff's Office includes a Mercy doctor as part of its team. Wistrom hopes the local training will help other agencies such as Janesville to follow suit.

-- Tactical Emergency Casualty Care, which as of next year will be a Wisconsin requirement for anyone graduating from the police academy. The course provides good self-aid and buddy-aid training to primarily help a law enforcement officialS through the first 15 minutes of an injury.

Copyright 2015 - The Janesville Gazette, Wis.