New Information on Town of Newburgh EMS Operations Upgrades

Shortly after the New Year, the Town of Newburgh Emergency Medical Services (TONEMS) announced that they would be upgrading and expanding its services to better be able to continue serving its community. This brings us to present day where the Town of Newburgh EMS just gave an update regarding these upgrades.

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Town of Newburgh EMS Transition to ALS Agency

The announcement that was made by the Town of Newburgh EMS was that they would be making the transition to becoming an Advanced Life Support (ALS) Agency from a Basic Life Support (BLS) Agency. While both types of agencies are important, they operate at completely different levels.

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According to the American Red Cross individuals or agencies that are BLS certified have one primary objective and that objective is to simply maintain the life functions of a person who is having a medical emergency like cardiac arrest. ALS certified agencies or individuals provide a different level of care to individuals in moments of distress like cardiac arrest or stroke. ALS agents objective is to "stabilize" patients they deal with in medical emergencies and prepare them for transport to a hospital or medical facility.

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According to the official press release, the Town of Newburgh EMS made the decision to transition and upgrade their level of care to continue providing "...the highest standard of care to residents of the Town of Newburgh and its surrounding communities.

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ALS Transition Update

This brings us to the present day where the Town of Newburgh EMS just recently provided an update on this important transition process via the TONEMS Facebook page. The announcement was to inform citizens that the new leaders for the "up-and-coming" program had been named.

Three distinguished individuals will be the heads of the program and those individuals are Ralph “Bo” Tunno, Gerrit Blauvelt and Richard Lenahan. The announcement also provided detailed information on each of the selected individuals, what their new roles will be and their years worth of experience.

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Ralph "Bo" Tuno has been awarded the title of Assistant Chief of ALS and is making his way to the agency with an impressive 30 years of experience with education in Emergency Medicine as well as Business Management.

Gerrit Blauvelt has been awarded the title of Second Assistant Chief of ALS and possesses 20 years worth of experience as a Paramedic. In those 20 years, Blauvelt has served in numerous different roles including "Director of Field Operations, Lieutenant, Clinical Coordinator and Tactical EMS Team Leader".

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Richard Lenahan has been awarded the role of Second Assistant Chief of Training and has served in numerous roles as a Paramedic over the last 24 years. In this position, he will assure that all in-house personnel maintain certifications for all BLS and ALS functions.

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Gallery Credit: Ed Nice