Medial alert: Adirondacks
In Old Forge, which has a small health center, Mike Farmer has seen people show up at the visitor information center “seeking immediate medical assistance for everything from serious external bleeding to seizures to suspected heart attacks and strokes.”
Farmer or other center personnel call 911. EMTs either direct the patient to the Town of Webb Health Center—a weekdays-only, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. operation—or rush them by ambulance to a hospital an hour away from the western Adirondack village.
“Some of the risk posed by the absence of an urgent care facility is minimized by the heroic efforts of EMT/ALS/ambulance staff,” Farmer said.
Farmer, the tourism and publicity director for the Town of Webb (which includes Old Forge), and others who live in isolated areas of the Adirondack Park reside in health care “deserts.” Their nearest hospital or urgent care is at least an hour away. When people in Lake Pleasant need emergency care, ambulances transport them to Nathan Littauer Hospital in Gloversville. From Webb, they are taken to one of two hospitals in Utica.
Farmer recounts a recent case in which a stricken resident received care by local
