EMT74

My daughter lives in Maryland. Schools, fire, police are all county based. System works very well and the taxpayers get the advantage of lower taxes. I have been saying for years that this system should be used in New York. However, I know this will never happen. Politics wins again over common sense.

I have known Sam for many years. Our agencies worked out a mutual aid plan during the major construction of the Amvets bridge on the Taconic Pkwy. He is a great friend and a true EMS professional. My thoughts and prayers are with Sam and his family. Speedy recovery my friend.

In Somers we have no "Paid Staffing" but we have a mechanic, a secretary, a treasurer, a clerk, a training officer, and a building maintenence guy. Somewhere in there is also a purchasing agent. All are paid. We contract for IT, landscaping, plowing, building cleaning, dispatching and EMS staffing. Hence a volunteer district (Yeah I know it is a vol fire COMPANY that serves a district) that has a budget of about 3 millon a year. The budget for the whole rest of the Town, minus the schools, is about 12 million. So the fire spending (with EMS) is consuming abut 25% of the Town's non-school taxpayer dollars. THAT is an interesting number- fire response area spending as a % of total town/village spending for the same geographical area. Another one is spending divided by calls= price of a call. I saw that one very small Westchester combo dept is paying $2 million/year for retiree pensions and medical coverage. I believe FDNY spends more on retiree pensions and benefits then they spend on payroll of the active duty force, so I asume that is the norm? Barry does the NRFD also do that?

My understanding, and as usual I reserve the right to be wrong, is that insurance companies will only pay for ALS done by medics. So medicare killed the EMT I. Beleive me, if EMS could bill at the ALS rate and pay the crews an 'intermediate' rate, they would jjump on it.

St Joes in Yonkers told us to stop calling years ago- unless the pt is intubated. Also many ED's have a BLS notification line. Use it. Waay better then the radio. And when you hang up, look at the call timer. More than a minute, and you are too chatty. Examples: Adult male slip and fall, immobilized. Elderly female, fell from bed, poss hip Fx. Child stung by bee, Hx of allergy. Epi pen given, distress cleared. Bicycle hit by car, multiple Fx and a closed head injury. No LOC, fully alert, breathing well, helmet was on.

I heard a job go out to another crew for a response to pick up a person and take them to the ER becasue they had forgotten to get a doc note when they left. I thought the call stood out becasue many folks call thinkin what they have is urgent. THIS guy knew it wasn't urgent.

Condolences to Dr. D's family. He was truly one in a million. This is a great loss to all especially the EMS community.

Hey Joe,.....OUTSTANDING!!!!!!! You make your hometown friends very proud of you.

Right on Joe!!!! I couldn't have said it better myself.

I have been working with Assemblyman Greg Ball to have this law changed to apply to ALL emergency vehicles. The FASNY lobbist in Albany has been fighting this change. I think it is time that FASNY puts scene safety first.