How do you do it?

[Romania]

Here is the question. How does your agency/region provide EMS. Is it fire based with transportation, fire based with private transportation, third agency with fire running first response, etc.

Let me know how it works or doesn't work.

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Alan Romania, CEP
romania@uswest.net
IAFF Local 3449

My Opinions do not reflect the opnions of the IAFF or Local 3449.

[BURNSEMS]

Howdy Romania, Our EMS is Vol Fire First Response with Private Service Transport, we have a great Service that provides our Dispatch, Med Control, and most Supplies, the Crews that work our area work with our group real well and we frequently Ride in on Trauma Calls or Serious Medical with the crew, our AMB is located 12 mi from our city so we have a 8-10 min wait for a rig and most times have the Patient Packaged or A.L.S. in progress prior to arrival. It works well for us and we have had very few problems on either side..

[FF McDonald]

Alan--

I know that i have answered some of this in replies to other postings that you have made, but for the benefit of everyone else, here goes...

I live in Bergen County, NJ. We have hospital based ALS. BLS is a mixture of Volunteer based organizations; some Fire related, and some operating alongside Fire w/ a seperate organizational charter.

The hospitals in our area are tasked w/ providing ALS. That is not to say that there are not Paramedics on Individual Squads/Departments, but the majority are employed with the hospitals. Each hospital is responsible for having several medic units. These units do not provide transport, they carry equipment only. They are notified of a call at the same time we are dispatched, and usually arrive on scene w/ us, if not a few minutes later. There are instances where all the Medics, county wide are committed to calls, and we will "Grab n'Go".

We have access to a Level II trauma center, Hackensack University Medical Center; and a Level I trauma canter, University of Medicine and Dentistry, Newark, NJ (UMDNJ).

Depending upon the severity of the call, we also have access to NORTHStar. The NJ State Police run two medevac helos- Northstar, and Southstar; the state is divided in half (North and South, obviously) If either of these helicopters is down(due to maint.), we can call upon medevac services from eastern PA, lower NY state, or NYC. The travel time from all of these places is negligeable. If you really need a helo in bad weather, call the Coast Guard or the Military / Guard--- they will fly in anything http://www.firehouse.com/interactive/boards/smile.gif

We are divided into duty crews. There is a duty crew for every weeknight, and people sign up for shifts on the weekends.

looks like this:
Monday- 0600-1830 GENERAL DUTY
1830-0600 Duty Crew
Tuesday-0600-1830 GENERAL DUTY
1830-0600 Duty Crew

You get the picture....

During the day, we usually don't have a problem getting a crew out. Several members of the Ambulance Corps also work for the town's DPW.

If you need/want more info--- just yell.

Marc

[mys2ry]

Hi there,
We run a 3rd service over here with the fire dept. doing 1st responder on select calls. SOB, chest pain, codes, mva's. For the most part it works well. Though,there are some fire crews who really dislike going on medical calls, and make it very obvious to the medics when they arrive on scene. There is a push here for the fire dept to get more involved with EMS. It is being met with mixed feelings with the rank and file. Many of the medics would like to merge with fire, there are some fireman who want nothing to do with EMS.
Please don't think I am bashing the fire dept. Most fire fighters are very helpful to the medics, its just those bad apples that stick in your mind.
aloha

[chief4102]

This county operates a 3rd service ALS transport, with (usually) fire departments operating medical first responce. There is one "4th" service agency in the county. They operate a township run mfr service. All first responder agencies are MFR level that are paid-on- call. They are the backbone of EMS in this county. A number of ambulance full and part-time employees run first responce in their free time.

Be Safe
Dan

[Aff]

Our department provides BLS care and transportation with 95% of our people trained to an EMT-I level with BTLS training. We are also tiered with ALS provided by Lakeview Hospital. When dispatched, the duty Chief will call for their assistance if the call type warrents. If any doubt, they are dispatched. If they are called on-scene, the medics will determine the transportation level, ALS or BLS. Works fairly well with no real time delay in providing an advanced level of care without tying up an ALS rig for BLS or "routine" calls.
BE Safe...
Mark

[Matt Trotta]

Union EMS is a Full-time ALS/BLS service consisting of 8 type III Ambulances stationed at Fire Depts. around the county 2 ALS Quick response trucks and 2 BLS Van Ambulances for "Prime Time" non-emergency calls. We are also supported by Fire Dept. First Responders and Med-Center Air out of Carolinas Medical Center (Lev 1 Trauma) which consists of 2 Fixed wings one of which is stationed in Union County, and 2rotary wings. We can also call on Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem for there Chopper if needed.
We work 24 on 48 off modified 24-24 on weekends so every third week you will have a four day weekend http://www.firehouse.com/interactive/boards/smile.gif We have 3 shifts with 18 Paramedics per shift and 4 EMT-B for the Prime time trucks.

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Matt Trotta EMT-Paramedic

[CFD-E3]

I believe here in RI with the exception of one town, every fire dept. in the state does it's own EMS, including transportation. EMS here is probably 60-80% of every dept. runs. If your FD doesn't do EMS now, they better look into it. We just don't have the number of fires we used to, not even NYC. All FF in my city are Cardiac Techs. There are no paramedics in RI, unless they came from another state. We run an engine or ladder and one of our four rescues to every EMS call in the city.

[Animal]

We are an all-volunteer Fire and EMS department. We provide all first response, BLS, ALS, and transport. Works out very well, and we usually don't have a problem getting crews out.

[benson911]

First Response ALS by the full-time FD with an ambulance. Private EMS response for transport. Both units respond in the same manner, emergency or non-emergency. FD ambulance will transport only if the private's ETA is too long for the patient's needs or if other special circumstances arise. 99.9% of transport is by the private to keep our only ALS unit in service. The ALS crew responds to all EMS calls and responds to fire calls with the Ladder, so they respond to 10-13 runs per day.

[SEFD117]

In our area ( suburban Chicagoland ) everything is Fire-based EMS. Nearly all the Depts. in the area are staffed with Firefighter/Paramedics. Those that are not are a minimum of Firefighter/EMT and use a contract Paramedic service that runs out of the firehouse ( not always a peaceful relationship ). Some of the rural Depts. do not require their members to be EMS trained but the are slowly dying out. Private ambulance companies have nothing to do with the 911 system ( and we don't want them ). The privates are really only in business around here for nursing home transfers and hospital-to-hospital transfers.


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[DED1645]

The way the county I live in Southern Jersey is that the ALS is hospital based. The BLS is operated many ways. We of course have a substantial amout of volly BLS. We also have a few towns in a EMS Alliance which is self operating threw billing.(They are M-F 6a-6p) There are also a few town that are recently began operation w/ a local hospital formed BLS program.(They work w/ the volly BLS. They man the volly's rigs during the daytime. Times vary, but it is 7 days a week.) They also have municipal BLS. Then there is Fire Dept. BLS. Then Camden City is operated by an outside service.(UMDNJ) We pretty much have it all ways. To say one works better than the other I can't say.
There are too many towns to mention, but if you have any specific questions, please E-mail me for any questuions.
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David DeCant
firefighter/NREMT-B
Originally Mantua,NJ
Presently Lindenwold,NJ(I'm not a member of any of this District's dept's.)



[This message has been edited by DED1645 (edited November 04, 1999).]