New facility helps Medflight paramedics train for various patient situations

BEDFORD, Mass. — A new facility to train Boston Medflight paramedics is now in use and Boston 25 News got an inside look at how it works.

At first glance, it looks like a hospital emergency room, but it's actually a training simulation built exclusively for Boston Medflight at their new headquarters in Bedford.

On Tuesday, Boston 25 News anchor Blair Miller was able to see a variety of scenarios they can practice. In this case, they came to get a 7-year-old who has been hurt in a skateboarding accident.

"The huge benefits of being able to decompress the need for training is to be able to pause everything and have a conversation. You can't do that in real life," said Mike Hourihan.

Added elements like the sound make it feel real.

"Often times there's many, many people in the room. The sounds are escalated. The level of anxiety is also escalated. And most of the time, that's the situation that we're walking into every single time," said Catie Graham.

Another crew in the control room watches from the cameras recording the training scenario.

"We do a structured debriefing with the teams and give them a chance to reflect on their performance to offer our feedback on their success and it's in the simulation debriefing where the real learning happens," said Michael Frakes.

What they learn inside the lab is key to what they do out in the field.

The scenario moves to the medical helicopter, one of several aircraft include fixed-wing airplanes that answer thousands of calls a year in the region.

Flying from hospital to hospital, scene to scene, hoping the tools they learn here, take over when it matters most.

"Our mission really is to provide critical care transport to critically ill patients in our region," said Maura Hughesceo.

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