VEMS Accepts $5,000 Donation For Tablets
James Cotter, left, Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer, Naugatuck Valley Savings and Loan, presents a ,000 check to Valley Emergency Medical Services staff members at their Seymour headquarters. Accepting the check are Dawn Macharelli, operations supervisor, and Robert Pettinella, VEMS executive director. Contributed photo
The paramedics at Valley Emergency Medical Service will soon have new technology to help streamline their work in the field.
Earlier this month James Cotter, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Naugatuck Valley Savings and Loan, presentedVEMS with a $5,000 check that will be used to purchase six Microsoft Surface Pro tablets.
Robert Pettinella, the VEMS executive director, said without businesses such as Naugatuck Valley Savings and Loan “agencies such as Valley EMSInc. would not be in existence.”
VEMS was established in 1984.
Pettinella said he couldn’t say enough about Naugatuck Valley Savings and Loan, since VEMSrelies heavily on donations to make capital purchases.
The grant “will ensure seamless transition for our electronic medical records charting,” Pettinella said.
The tablets will replace laptops that have been used for the past five or six years, he said.
“They’re more portable than the laptops and will have wireless connectivity, that will allow us to have access to the Internet for medical purposes,” Pettinella said.
Paramedics will be able to quickly access medical records of patients they have served in the past, he said.
The tablets will be compatible with a computer system used by Griffin Hospital in Derby, Pettinella said, so doctors there will have a patient’s medical chart before the patient arrives at the hospital.
VEMS is a critical care provider with 34 employees who are all paramedics, Pettinella said.