Your EMS Protocol

[TDFDCaptain#5]

After reading the discussions about EMS and the drain it places on FD's, what exactly is the response protocol for EMS calls within the different dept.'s. Our dept. responds only to cardiac arrest/unconscious patients(defib equipped), car accidents, multi-patient incidents, and industrial accidents. Fire response takes priority over EMS and that is in our municipal by-law. We keep fire suppression as our first priority with our response for EMS a BACKUP to ambulance. Any other thoughts?

[cfr3504]

We have the ambulance, we run ALS transport, so we really don't have the option of only going on certian calls.

[GO4IT]

THE COUNTY I RUN AS A AMBULANCE MEDIC HAS TOWNSHIP AND CITY DEPTS. THE GOOD "OLD BOYS", ALMOST TO RETIREMENT, DEPTS RUN ONLY THE SERIOUS TYPE CALLS AS YOU MENTIONED. THE OTHER ONES INCLUDING THE ALL VOLUNTEER DEPARTMENTS RUN ALL THE AMBULANCE CALLS THEY CAN BECAUSE AS THEY SAY "WE AREN'T HELPING ANYBODY SITTING AT HOME"

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[gah74]

The department I work for runs the ambulance service also. We are all either EMTB or EMTP. We rotate b/n the ambulance, engine, and truck depending on what apparatus are at the station we're assigned to.

Some of our stations have "paramedic engine companies." These engines run on minor and major medical calls and carry ALS supplies on the engines. The paramedic engine companies are in districts that don't have an ambulance assigned to them. The idea is to improve medical response times in these districs.

Districts that have ambulances assigned to them only have the fire apparatus run w/ them on major medical calls (unconscious person, chest PN, SOB).

[Looper]

We respond on EMS calls as first responders only (BLS now, soon to be ALS), and this makes up about 30% of our runs. We respond on serious calls or if the medic unit is responding from outside its primary district. Since one of the area hospitals is in the middle of our fire district, very often an ambulance will be leaving it and pick up a run that we normally would have responded on.

The EMS service also has its own first responders who are paged out on all calls except assaults and psychiatric. They also average 3 man crews, so we don't get called for manpower as often.

We don't look at EMS as a drain on the FD - our priority is still fire & rescue. Its just another service we provide to our community. We have made a difference on many critical patients, with treatment prior to the arrival of the ambulance and actually have some defibrilator saves.