(TNS) - In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, EMS workers face unique challenges among healthcare workers.
They’re walking into the “great unknown.”

“We’re going into people’s homes. The hospital is a really tough environment but they have to keep cleanliness to a certain standard,” said Administrative Director of EMS at Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH) Dominick Battinelli.

That hospital standard of cleanliness doesn’t exist in a house -- especially in a home where a patient who is potentially positive for COVID-19 has been cooped up for days.

EMS workers are used to walking into people’s homes, Battinelli said, but constantly being mobile and going into places that hold multiple people is currently an added complexity.

Angela Ciocia, paramedic at Richmond University Medical Center, said the great unknown means taking extra precautions.

“We have to be sure that we’re in the proper equipment because we never know what we’re getting into,” Ciocia said, echoing Battinelli.

Prior to the coronavirus, she would enter a home in a mask and gloves at the minimum – eye shields and gowns were put on as needed. Now, eye shields are used more often than not.

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