EMS group up and running at Wake Forest

Press Release

Wake Forest Emergency Response Team (WFERT) is pleased to announce that they have been in service for over two weeks as a basic life support / quick response service.

"In our first two and half weeks of service we responded to 8 calls, including 1 CVA, 3 unconscious (etoh), 1 abdominal pain, 1 ankle injury, and 1 respiratory distress. I estimate that we will respond to about 35 calls per semester (nights/ weekends)," said John Kraus, Equipment & Communications Officer of WFERT.

There are approxmately 3700 undergraduate students at Wake Forest; just over 5000 including the graduate programs. Over 3000 undergrads reside on campus.

Founder of the group, sophomore Jessica Murray, said, "The first response unit has four purposes: to respond to requests for an ambulance on campus, to serve as primary responders to minor emergencies, to serve the university and the county Emergency Medical System in covering university gatherings and intramural and club sports events and to implement an education system on campus, providing first aid, CPR and EMT training."

WFERT uses an old shuttle van that belongs to campus police to carry equipment when the van is not being used by campus police for transportation to training sessions. During a duty shift, one EMT has the van, while the other generally responds on foot. "Some day we hope to get our own vehicle," said Kraus. He continued, "We are dispatched by campus police via simple numeric group pagers, and answer it on our 2-way radios. We're kind of a low-budget operation." It is worth noting that other campus EMS groups on limited budgets find this combination of numeric pager and two-way radio very effective.

For additional information about WFERT, you may view their Web site at: http://www.students.wfu.edu/wfert/. Additional news coverage of the team can be found on Wake Forest's on-line newspaper in two articles: January 29, 1998 or February 13, 1998