Pennsylvania Ambulance Chief Hopes Festivall Go Well, Worries About Strike Impact

A siren temporarily diverted a young boy's attention from hand-crafted toys and ice cream cones to the emergency vehicle slowly pulling away from Pennsylvania Military Museum grounds in Boalsburg.

"Do you see it?" the boy's father asked Friday as the Alpha ambulance crew drove away from the People's Choice Festival. "There it goes."

While Scott Rawson may appreciate the youngster's interest, there have been far too many "there-it-goes" moments for ambulance watchers recently for his liking.

Rawson, executive director of Alpha Community Ambulance Service, expected to be busy this week, with thousands of people visiting the State College area for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts and the People's Choice Festival. But most of Alpha's extra work is due to the five-day strike by nurses, technicians, maintenance workers and other employees at Mount Nittany Medical Center, and an increased number of patient transfers from the hospital in the days leading up to the work stoppage.

"We've had to bump up our staff the last couple of days in anticipation of the strike," Rawson said. "We've been making inter-facility transfers, day and night, to Altoona, Lock Haven, Hershey, Geisinger, Williamsport."

Because the strike is occurring during arts festival week, its impact on Alpha is compounded.

"The timing isn't good for us because of our commitment to this event -- People's Choice," Rawson said. "We have two ambulances here, and it affects our ability to respond elsewhere in the area."

Rawson envisioned the situation worsening as both arts festivals approached their peaks.

"I'm hoping we won't have any additional transfers at night this weekend, which is traditionally our busiest weekend of the year," he said.

This is also the busiest weekend of the year for the State College Police Department, but Chief Tom King said Friday afternoon that the hospital strike has yet to have an impact on his staff.

Most of his department's contact with the hospital is through the emergency room, King noted -- interviewing accident victims being treated there or having drunken-driving suspects' blood being tested.

It's also a busy time for the hospital. Mount Nittany Medical Center spokeswoman Maureen Karstetter said that during a normal weekend, the emergency room might have 120 patients over a 24-hour period. That increases to between 140 and 150 patients during arts festival weekend.

Nevertheless, officials are hopeful that the hospital can accommodate the demand despite the strike.

"We've been assured the emergency room will be open and the emergency services will be available as usual," King said.

Like Rawson at Alpha ambulance, King worked in the days leading up to the strike to minimize its potential impact on his department.

"We had some preparation. We talked in advance with both management and union officials, going over the law about what is permitted as far as pickets and protests," King said. "And I've been pleased with the response from both sides."

The strike's initial effect on Penn State has also been minimal.

"The primary question for us is what will happen to a student who needs real emergency care, i.e. emergency room treatment," explained Dr. Margaret Spear, director of University Health Services. "And it's my understanding, what I've read and through conversations with folks at the ER, is essentially the emergency room will be open and functioning as it always is."

If a student requires hospitalization for acute appendicitis, Spear believes the patient will be admitted and operated on.

"But if it's a bump on the back of the knee that needs to be biopsied sometime," she said, "they probably will have to wait."