Saint Michael’s EMT Santos earns advanced certificate

In continuing efforts to maintain a very high standard of service and ensure its employees are trained and certified as the best in the CNMI, another Saint Michael’s Medical Response team member recently completed and passed a certification in Pediatric Advanced Life Support as well as Instructor Level status to teach a list of courses in emergency medical response.

Branson Jay Santos, the crew chief for Saint Michael’s and one of four Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Technicians within the Saint Michael’s roster, recently completed a course provided by the nationally recognized Health & Safety Institute—a world leader in emergency response, care, and safety training, HSI is headquartered in Eugene, Oregon, and manages a family of brands that offer easy-to-use, dynamic instruction to communities, businesses, government agencies, and EMS and fire professionals. One of the brands of HSI is the American Training & Safety Institutes, or ASHI. ASHI Training Centers and instructors provide CPR, AED, and first aid training programs for the community, as well as ACLS and PALS training for professional responders.

At the invitation of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., Santos attended the course conducted at the CHCC for hospital employees/providers and passed with impressive scores.

In addition to the training in PALS and the instructor course, Santos also completed and passed the course on blood borne pathogens. Health care providers like Santos must be aware of the dangers of contamination of infectious diseases and organisms in order to protect himself, the community, and other patients that he deals with each day. This training is in addition to the “in-house” training on infection control that is a requirement for all crew members of Saint Michael’s.

The training that Santos obtained in blood borne pathogens also assists in satisfying the training requirements of the U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard (29 CFR 1920.1030).

“Here at Saint Michael’s, we continually keep the interest and safety of our patients at the center of our operations, what is good for them and what will make their experience a high quality one, but more importantly, a safe and reliable experience that exceed all industry and regulatory standards,” explained Frances Taimanao, operations chief and director of Compliance for Saint Michael’s.

Derek Hocog, director of operations and a nationally registered EMT himself, said: “The ambulance business involves a myriad of safety, quality and industry standard issues that we are constantly ensuring that we comply with. In fact, Saint Michael’s Medical Response EMTs are the first batch of EMTs to be fully licensed by the CNMI in accordance with P.L. 15-105.”

SMMR holds the distinction of obtaining Licenses Number 001 from the CNMI Health Care Professional Licensing Board. The qualified crewmembers of SMMR also hold certificates in federal program standards like the National Incident Management System and CPR. To view the actual certificates of each crewmember, log on to their website at www.saintmichaelscnmi.com and click on “Crew and Personnel”.

The four nationally registered St. Michael’s employees are Derek T. Hocog, Mike Attao Concepcion, Joseph Torres White, and Branson Jay Santos. [B][I](PR)[/I][/B]