Staff from the Williamsport Crosscutters in Pennsylvania are prepared for everything, including an emergency. Staff recently participated in a lifesaving skills training series hosted by EMS clinicians from Susquehanna Regional EMS and UPMC. The training, part of UPMC’s Minutes Matter program, took place at Muncy Bank Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field in Williamsport.
“At most accidents, health emergencies, natural disasters or other crises, bystanders are usually the first people on the scene until trained emergency professionals arrive,” said Tony Bixby, chief, Susquehanna Regional EMS, and director, Prehospital Services, UPMC in North Central Pa.
“While trained are often only minutes away, what bystanders do and how they respond in those early minutes greatly impacts the outcome. You don’t have to be a trained medical professional to make a difference in someone’s life, and learning simple, easy-to-understand emergency skills, empowers bystanders to provide critical help during these life-threatening and highly stressful situations.”
UPMC recently launched Minutes Matter in the region and has been working with community partners, like the Williamsport Crosscutters, City of Williamsport, Williamsport Lycoming Chamber of Commerce, and the Lycoming County United Way to increase local access to basic emergency information and education about life-saving interventions.
“The Crosscutters are thankful for our strong partnership with UPMC,” said Gabe Sinicropi, vice president, Williamsport Crosscutters. “Part of that partnership is having life-saving AED’s and Stop the Bleed kits on site at Muncy Bank Ballpark in case of emergencies that require them to be deployed. The Minutes Matter program provides our senior staff with skills needed to react immediately in the case of an emergency, until the professionals are on the scene.”
UPMC’s Minutes Matter empowers bystanders by not only teaching how to respond to common, life-threatening emergencies related to opioid overdose, mental health crisis, cardiac arrest, and uncontrolled bleeding, but also how to act and use an AED, Narcan, and a tourniquet, as well as how to administer effective CPR.
