Nurse worried about Burning Man switch

Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to the Bureau of Land Management and the Sun.

To Whom it May Concern,

I am very concerned about the Burning Man organization’s choice of new medical management for Burning Man 2015. I am an emergency room RN in Reno and I have volunteered for the last several years with HGH at Burning man as their lead RN.

This new medical management company is and will not be prepared to treat the high volume of critical patients that this event produces on a daily bases.

They are unable to provide critical care or acute cardiac and trauma life support, nor do they possess the transport equipment or staff to transport these patients off of the playa. Which means they will be utilizing 40 — 50 percent of (Reno) EMS.

When our local EMS is out of service running extended time transports back and forth between the event, they are unable to provide care in our community and our community will suffer for it.

Because CrowdRX is not able to care for critically ill patients, they will be transporting — off playa — significantly more people; this will add additional strain to our ERs and hospitals (which are already at max capacity). Burning Man takes place during an extremely busy time for Reno and Sparks; the Rib cook-off and our annual motor cycle jamboree to name just two.

HGH provided consistently excellent, swift and skilled care not only on site but also managed transports for the patients that needed to be moved to a higher level of care.

HGH is able to provide critical care management on site, and frequently able to even treat and discharge some of these patients back to their playa homes.

The staff at Ramparts even managed to make sure their discharged patients had
follow up care while at the Burn. Because HGH is local and respected within northern Nevada, they had the ability to connect with critical care air services and local physicians outside of Black Rock City. They even provided limited medications for patients on a daily bases while on playa.

Due to their proximity to Gerlach, HGH was able to restock any supplies and medications daily and maintain consistent quality care and service.
HGH is local and loved and understands not only the needs of Black Rock City, but of the hospital systems in Reno and Sparks and was able to provide excellent care without overwhelming our local ERs and staff.

I ask you as a native Nevadan, a long time Burner and a medical professional, to restrict CrowdRX from providing care for this event. The residents of Black Rock City and Reno, Sparks, Fernley and Fallon deserve better.

Claire Gilles, RN
Reno