Emergency Medicine Community Resources
If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, please call 911.
Emergency Medicine Community Resources
The Division of EMS brings together the educational resources of Graduate Medical Education's Department of Emergency Medicine and the clinical resources of the Albany Medical Center. This partnership helps public safety organizations in unique ways, providing up-to-date clinical and management education, emergency medicine community resources, and expanded prehospital medical protocols.
Albany Medical Center operates the region’s premier Level I adult trauma center, a designation that enables us to treat patients with the most serious injuries. A close relationship with the Bernard & Millie Duker Children’s Hospital, which operates the region’s only Level I pediatric trauma center, means that both adults and children can get the most skilled trauma care in the region without being routed to separate locations.
Medical Command for Albany Medical Center's Division of EMS is provided by physicians from the Department of Emergency Medicine. In Albany, Emergency Medicine residents provide medical direction for ALS calls within the six county REMO region. Emergency Medicine faculty members from the Department of Emergency Medicine also provide online supervision and backup via radio or phone. Emergency Medicine attendings and residents respond to specific EMS calls 24 hours a day. These EMS physicians respond to all calls that might require complicated airway management, cardiac arrests, major fires, entrapment, or MCIs. Paramedics may also request the physician for other calls as well.
An accredited EMS Fellowship program is offered through the Department of Emergency Medicine. This program aims to prepare the individual to pass the board exam in EMS and to assume a leadership role in EMS Medical Direction for several fire department and EMS agencies around the region, including the City of Albany Fire and Emergency Services, City of Schenectady Fire Departments, Mohawk Ambulance Service, LifeNet of NY - Air Methods (Albany, Glenn and Ticonderoga bases), and other agencies.
Public Access Defibrillation (PAD)
The Albany Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine, Division of EMS, has promoted the use of portable defibrillator technology. We serve as the medical director for several local organizations, businesses, recreational facilities, and other workplaces.
NYSDOH Public Access Defibrillation
According to the American Heart Association, a specific heart condition called sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) claims the lives of an estimated 250,000 Americans each year. Unlike a heart attack, which is caused by a blockage in an artery, SCA is an electrical malfunction of the heart typically associated with an abnormal heart rhythm known as ventricular fibrillation. Defibrillation, delivery of an electrical current to the heart, provides the only effective treatment for ventricular fibrillation; however, defibrillation is most effective if received in the first few minutes after SCA occurs. For every minute that goes by without defibrillation, the chance of survival decreases by 7-10 percent. After 10 minutes, survival is very unlikely.
While many ambulances carry defibrillators, it takes an average of nine minutes for them to reach a cardiac arrest victim. As a result, fewer than five percent of victims survive. Due to this small window of time, defibrillators in the workplace are essential because building security, high-rises, large campuses, heavy urban traffic and other hindrances often make it impossible for emergency medical services to arrive in time to successfully treat an SCA victim.
If you or your organization is interested in obtaining more information about Public Access Defibrillation, call 518-262-3773.
