By Cara Miller
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Joining the ranks of pizza and Chinese food, UA students may soon be able to get their medical attention delivered free.
If a proposal to University of Arizona administrators and faculty goes well today, the campus will see UA Rescue, an on-campus medical rescue service, fully operational by spring.
Designed by three UA students, UA Rescue would serve as a first reponse for on-campus emergency calls.
"The university currently provides services from health care, to police, to food, so it seems like one of the things that is lacking is medical services," said Michael Vaughn, philosophy senior and first officer of UA Rescue.
While similar services are already implemented in 48 other universities across the country, Vaughn said the idea for UA Rescue came to him about three years ago.
"I noticed that the university is like its own city, and emergency medical response is one of the things missing," he said.
The group will receive their calls from a city 911 dispatcher and will operate from a station that has yet to be decided. They will be able to give basic life support and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Vaughn said start-up costs, which include a response vehicle, will be expensive but said most of the supplies will be donated by medical retailers, hospitals, and the rural metro fire department.
The group is seeking corporate sponsorship to cover the cost of the rescue vehicle.
Today's meeting will consist of questions and concerns about how the group will operate.
"Everyone has been very pro what we are doing," said senior Michael Katz.
Vaughn said the meeting will also cover university supervision. A supervisory committee of physicians has been proposed as well as a faculty advisor.
"There will also be some entity at (the) UA whether it be risk management or student health service who will be there to supervise year-to-year on a continuous basis," he said.
Steve Holland, Director of Risk Management, said they are very interested in the group because it would benefit the safety of the campus community.
"UAPD can't do any type of medical attention at all, so a lot of times they are waiting for people to show up," he said. "Not that the service is poor, but the other resources are being stretched."
While its primary goal is to provide medical care, the group will also be providing experience for students who want to get involved in community health and emergency health care.
"Our goal is to let students coming out of emergency medical technician classes get some real experience in the field," Katz said.
The group is hoping to recruit approximately 100 members, but Vaughn said more will be accepted.
The members do not have to be pre-medical students, but some training is required in either Emergency Technical Services or first response training.
Philanthropies will be another part of their duties, including instituting an EMT course, an all-day CPR course and free blood-pressure checks.