Call 911... And Actually Get Help
As a rural community, we fall into a category of people who do not receive emergency medical services quickly. It’s a fact. The national average of time for 911 call to arrival on scene is 7 minutes, but that time doubles to 14 minutes in rural areas. Around 1 in 10 encounters takes 30 minutes according to a 2017 Journal of American Medical Association study. Once an EMS vehicle has arrived, they will take the patient to the nearest hospital (unless the patient has requested a different hospital). For us, Berkshire Medical Center is closest, but it’s quite a bit more distant from us than a hospital would be to the average person in populated areas.
We may not think about these things in advance, but emergency medical care can be a life or death issue.
There are obvious factors in Washington that lengthen the time for a person with a health emergency to receive the care they need — distance from the EMS vehicle and the nearest hospital, weather and terrain challenges. GPS is not always reliable for providing correct addresses.
But while all of those challenges are out of our control, there’s one thing each of us can do to quicken the time it would take to receive emergency medical care: We can put up signage that will help an ambulance driver find our house quickly.
Town Administrator Sean Curran is heading up a project with the goal to have proper 911 signage on every dwelling in Washington. Thanks to ARPA funds, the signs will be free up until August 15, 2024; that’s when the signs will be ordered. Volunteers will even help install them if needed. The two-sided signs will, if properly posted, allow the house number to be visible from both sides of the road.
We are fortunate to now have a contract with Becket Ambulance Service, and they have a dedicated staff of skilled and ready responders 24/7/365. Their emergency service has proven to be the best option for our town. That said, the distance an ambulance must travel to get a Washington resident to a hospital is quite far. It starts out on Jacob’s Ladder Road, which is approximately 9 miles from the border of Washington.
An ambulance responding to a Washington resident who is on the most direct route between the starting point in Becket and Berkshire Medical Center will travel 20.5 miles from start to finish. If they’re responding to the most remote Washington residents, they will be traveling up to 26 miles from start to finish, and some of the roads are not ideal for speedy travel. Time will be necessary to get the person on board. When every minute counts, we don’t want responders to have to take extra time trying to find a house.
Becket responders may know their town’s roads and addresses better than they know Washington, and they rely on GPS, which is not always accurate. Last year, when the town was using County Ambulance Service, a Washington resident called 911. GPS directed the responders to the wrong location, and it was almost an hour before the caller arrived at the hospital. If you have ever had visitors complain about GPS misdirecting them to your house, it would be particularly important for you to request one of these signs.
Call to action:
Before August 15, 2024, contact Sean Curran letting him know your address, and that you want a sign. Also let him know if you want help installing the sign. You can reach him at 413-636-1614, or [email protected]. There’s also a signup sheet at Town Hall, inside of the conference room right outside of the Town Administrator office.
Tell your neighbors about this. It’s for EVERY residence in Washington.
