New EMS Physician Response Team

The blue, gold and white Ford Expedition with the St. Luke’s logo on its doors rushed along Schoenersville Road in Bethlehem on route to assist an ambulance crew caring for a patient with an unusual, life-threatening medical emergency.

This specialized vehicle is a key component of a new partnership between St. Luke’s Emergency Medicine Department and Northampton County, aimed at saving more lives at on-scene accidents and incidents in Bethlehem.

Bryan Wilson, MD, St. Luke’s EMS Fellowship Director and Director the EMS Response program, explained: “This new collaboration with Northampton County and our first-responder partners puts our fellowship-trained emergency medical services faculty physicians and fellows in the field in a mobile manner to supplement and support the medically complex care provided by emergency medical technicians (EMT) and paramedics in the community.”

St. Luke’s mobile EMS Response Team is the first one of its kind in the Lehigh Valley area, currently serving ambulance units from the City of Bethlehem EMS, Suburban EMS and Bethlehem Township Volunteer Fire Company and expecting to add other units in the future.

The grant-funded $250,000 vehicle, like a mini-ER on wheels, is equipped with state-of-the-art heart monitor/defibrillator, integrated CPR and ventilation feedback devices, life-saving medications, advanced airway management supplies and a hand-held ultrasound machine. Plans are underway to carry emergency blood for on-scene transfusions when there is major blood loss.

Dr. Wilson was behind the wheel of the Ford that day, responding to a request for assistance from the EMS crew. Together, he and the EMS crew worked with staff from a cardiologist’s office to save the patient’s life after his pacemaker malfunctioned. The team was able to safely deliver the living patient to a nearby hospital for follow-up care.  

Based at St. Luke’s Anderson Campus, the EMS Response Team receives requests from an ambulance crew through Northampton County’s 911 Center. The Response Team also provides continuing hands-on emergency medicine education to first responders in the county.  These services “help show EMS clinicians how much we value their expertise and possibly address recruitment and retention issues faced by EMS services professionals across the region,” added Dr. Wilson.