Your Dept's Rehab Responsibilities?

[Ashburn_2011]

Hey guys, if your department has a rehab program, what are their responsibilities? We don't really have rehab because "we can get water and decide when we're hot on our own." I don't agree at all. Rehab goes so much deeper than that. In personal opinions, rehab members should be first responders or pertain some type of medical training, and should be able to prep and possibly care for the FF(s)/Bystander(s) while the ambulance is en route. What are your takes on this matter? THANKS GUYS!

[Eng34FF]

First alarm gets an ambulance dispatched automatically. If that ambulance isn't needed for patient care, that crew can be used to man the rehab area. A working fire dispatch gets a second ambulance dispatched. We also have a "command center" in our squad that can be used for rehab in the summer and winter since it is air conditioned and heated.

We run the ambulance service as well as fire and all of our members are supposed to be EMT-B or First Responder qualified.

[farmerfire1156]

Generally the County Rescue Squad runs rehab along with an EMT from our dept. It took a long time to break the Squad from coming to the scene and just sitting in the Ambulance watching the action.

[LaFireEducator]

The majority of our support members, who are responsible for operating the rehab area, are either First Responders or EMT-Bs.

In addition we get a paramedic ambulance on every fire run, and often they assist in the rehab operation. On days where heat are an issue, they take a very active roll in the medical evaluation process.

[tree68]

We have an ambulance on first alarms. If things get hot and heavy, they'll go into rehab mode. That service also has a rehab/MCI rig that will come in on bigger incidents.

The bigger issue is control of the FFs on scene. The major portion of our fire departments operate apparatus with commercial two-man cabs, so our crews don't usually come in "pre-assembled." We try to establish a rehab (personnel staging) point early on, but sometimes that's not a high priority, and it may be a bit into an incident before anyone arrives on the scene who isn't instantly given an assignment anyhow.

And that's not even taking free-lancing into consideration.

Add to that the fact that with AMA you might have a "crew" made up from members of several FDs. When relieved, they may head for their own support folks (ie, for a bottle fill) rather than going to an established rehab area.

Then there's the mixed blessing - we don't run a lot of incidents where rehab is a factor, so it's hard to establish the necessary habits and frames of mind at actual incidents.

[LaFireEducator]

We have an ambulance on first alarms. If things get hot and heavy, they'll go into rehab mode. That service also has a rehab/MCI rig that will come in on bigger incidents.

The bigger issue is control of the FFs on scene. The major portion of our fire departments operate apparatus with commercial two-man cabs, so our crews don't usually come in "pre-assembled." We try to establish a rehab (personnel staging) point early on, but sometimes that's not a high priority, and it may be a bit into an incident before anyone arrives on the scene who isn't instantly given an assignment anyhow.

And that's not even taking free-lancing into consideration.

Add to that the fact that with AMA you might have a "crew" made up from members of several FDs. When relieved, they may head for their own support folks (ie, for a bottle fill) rather than going to an established rehab area.

Then there's the mixed blessing - we don't run a lot of incidents where rehab is a factor, so it's hard to establish the necessary habits and frames of mind at actual incidents.

Exactly.

Getting our guys to slow down, especially during the summer when temps are easily over 100 and humidity is 80% plus can be an issue.

We don't have a firm and set policy regarding when to rehab and how long simply because our manpower can vary so much and mutual aid manpower is fairly limited.

Luckily we do generally have support members who get rehab going pretty quickly most of the time, though daytime response can be a challenge at that time.

[L-Webb]

Most of the time here the bus has to help with firefighting because of manpower issues. We have to be careful in the summer.

[big iron]

Our department is small, so we don't always have someone available to handle rehab responsibilities. All of our trucks have coolers with water, and it is the responsibility of the driver to scoop some ice while waiting for others to arrive at station. If they forget, or dont take the time, then they will be SOL.