by Chris Basso, Staff Writer
September 30 2004

GENESEO, N.Y. — Geneseo First Response (GFR) has extended their services to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, along with other internal improvements. GFR is an all student volunteer service that provides emergency medical care for all students, faculty and staff on campus. Each crew is led by a New York State certified Emergency Medical Technician.

A number of reasons were behind the change to providing a 24 hours service. Eric Rathfielder, who is Emergency Medical Service (EMS) certified and also this year’s captain, said that it has been a goal to implement 24 hour service since Sept. of last year. In order to prepare for the change, Rathfielder explained that “[GFR] worked toward this goal by recruiting members and training more crew chiefs.” By March 2004, Rathfielder and other GFR members had come to the conclusion that “we had the resources in place to go to 24 hour coverage.” Rathfielder added, “It required a lot of hard work and additional commitment by both the officers and members of GFR, but nobody backed down, and we all made it work.”

Other changes have been made to help GFR provide faster and more efficient service to the campus. University Police donated a 2001 Ford Explorer to GFR. Additional funding from the Division of Student & Campus Life outfitted the new vehicle into an EMS fly car.

Another significant change that went into effect near the end of last semester is that GFR was integrated into the Livingston County EMS system. This means that GFR is dispatched directly from the Sheriff’s Office in the same way that the fire and police departments are dispatched. This is beneficial in a number of ways. First of all, both GFR and additional medical services receive the same information about an emergency, so there is no confusion at the scene. Also, since GFR arrives on the scene long before a county ambulance, GFR can notify appropriate authorities when their service is not needed, relieving some of the burden of the county services. However, if further attention is necessary, GFR does not need to contact them after evaluating a scene, as was previously practiced.

GFR now boasts a membership of over 50 volunteers that contribute their free time in order to make the campus safer. With the combination of these changes, GFR is continuing to work towards improvement.