Goodyear improves emergency services with GRIC grant

March 4, 2016

Mikhail Sundust

Community Newsperson

The Gila River Indian Community continues to use its portion of gaming dollars under the tribal-state revenue sharing program to support local government agencies and benefit the general public.

The Goodyear Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services received a GRIC grant in 2014, which it used to purchase a new electronic patient care reporting system that quickly and accurately documents on-call EMT-patient interactions.

The computer program tracks each EMS call in real time, allows EMTs to enter field reports, and sends patient information to doctors before the patient arrives at the hospital. It also works as a quality assurance tool by allowing supervisors to review the data and see where improvements in the department can be made.

The Goodyear Fire Department started working with the system in late 2014 and subsequently began reporting statistics to the State of Arizona. Recently, the state awarded GFD a “Premier Level” rating for its work in patient care and quality assurance.

Goodyear Fire Chief Paul Luizzi said none of it would have been possible without the grant from Gila River and sent a personal thank you letter to the Community for helping them provide a higher level of service in their community.

Goodyear Fire Department was named a Premier EMS Agency Program (PEAP).