mikeinet

http://www.thebravestonline.com/news.html?view=1&id=1587 The first few minutes are... well, rather interesting - seems like a circus show to me. I especially like it with the guy that runs with the hose starts getting overcome with smoke. Kind of makes VF's look REALLY bad?!? It really starts cooking towards the end... imagine this 3am call??

Well with a system like this... I think it's quite easy to set this up for a county-wide level. Dispatch a dept... a dispatcher can see "oh I only have a driver" after say 3min... re-dispatch automatically for an EMT... I think this would be QUITE ideal for a county-wide system. Obviously you can't deal with scheduling for crews and such but just to make sure that a call is covered... seems pretty interesting.

Hi All, I'm looking to take the national registry EMT Basic exam in the upcoming weeks... question I have is how close is it to the NYS EMT Exam? Is there additional material that isn't covered on the NY exam? Anyone taken it? Recommend any review books for it? I have my orig. EMT books, but i'm not sure if I should get one just for national registry since it might be a tad different than i'm used to with NYS exams. Thanks!

Really? I thought that you had to take a refresher class?

Ah that kind of follows along with my other question... just moved to CT. Once you get your national cert, how long does it take to get your CT emt card? Is there anything additional you have to do (ie: refresher class?)

no, of course you can't DENY someone an ambulance... but personally - a medical facility should know better than to call for an ambulance in it's own situations... It's not like someone at home calling for an ambulance and not needing one

Personally... there needs to be a distinction as to what an "EMERGENCY" is - are they going to the hospital because their life is AT RISK or because the facility they are at can't give a given tx. If it's a true emergency... IE a "real" diff breathing call that would qualify for ALS care then I have no issues with it going by ambulance... If it's say a "facility" looking for an excuse to offload a pt... then there's no reason why an EMS agency should be taken out of service to deal with it - tax dollars, personal time (if a vol agency) or putting the community more at risk (what happens when 2min after getting on scene you hear a full arrest being mutual aided??). But don't try telling a facility that... :-)

Just saw this news story on Fox 10 O'Clock news... Quite emarassing for the fire service... http://www.myfoxny.com/myfox/pages/News/De...mp;pageId=3.2.1

Definetly love those fights... "why do you need sirens" or "I live next door and don't want to hear sirens all night long!" some people really just don't think.

I woke up today to my alarm clock and had a flashback to waking up to my alarm clock yesturday... I need to sue too.

... you'd think gas stations would have ways to prevent something like that from happening - like different size/type of connectors on the hoses or something

Guys... these forums are always monitored and patrolled as a method to provide feedback... not to bash an organization over and over again about how their operating procedures are not like everyone else. I am sure I can come up with a list for EVERY EMS agency in the tri-state area regarding protocols that are not 100% followed per NYS law or are just over the top. Sure they may do a lot of things that make us balk at such as the things mentioned above... they make ME raise an eyebrow too - but don't forget, they still are an EMS agency just like anything in Putnam, Westchester, or Orange Counties. They are all EMT certified like you and I and they have the same training. How would you like it if someone bashed every operating procedure in your agency? (no, I have absolutly NO affiliation with Hatzolah let alone have ever even seen them operate - I'm just bugged how everyone is pissing all over them like everyone else is angels in the EMS community)

Comment from a reader on the bottom of the story:

Personally - I only leave my lights on if my vehicle is creating a road hazard (ie I pull up somewhere facing the wrong direction of the road... accident scenes... etc.) or when we have an ALS intercept coming so they can easier find us (and with that said, I reduce the lights down to just the box lights / half the lightbar depending the rig capabilities)

see... this is an issue with the lower NY area. If you look at Onondaga County... they've very well adapted to the priority system. All VACs as well as paid agencies (Rural/Metro) use the priority system... Pri 1 is ALS Life Threatning - Pri 2 is life threatning - Pri 3 - non-emergency response - Pri 4 - Hospital Tx. EnRoute to hospitals... unless you have a critical pt you're going in a non-emergency P3... If you want to respond to the hospital with a life-critical pt (full arrest... stroke... etc.) you need to clear it w/ resource while enroute to the hospital (via med chans or landline) I personally think its more of a training issue and if the county issued standards as to how to respond/when/how and set up a training program... within 2 years things would be a lot smoother. There'd be quite a buck to the system "we've done this for years without problems" - but as said in the inital post... look how much hazard / problem is caused (tying up major intersections... creating potential for major hazard...) I forget which class I heard it in, but I believe responding lights & sirens on the national average only saves you 30 seconds (something like that) It's putting you and your crew (and pt) at risk responding when you dont need to! After all... who's the most important person on an ambulance call? YOU! (with this being said... Syr Fire Dept responds to EVERYTHING... besides requests from fire control not to - generally only lockouts to what i've seen)

chiefs of the dept requested the simucast and millwood has a repeater on 33.96 to repage out their calls...

all I can say is they're saying 1' to 2' of snow in Syracuse... and i'm NOT A FAN!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO SPRING??? Global Warming?? What??

I agree - all you need to do is place one phone call to the DOL and they'll do the rest for you... submit proof you're not getting your OT and they will most definetly do the dirty work for you. And also keep you annonymous! It's a win win situation... they're doing something illegal, no reason why you should be forced to live with it. DOL will also help recover lost income too.

sure... of course there's an exception. If you are a SALARIED EMPLOYEE then you're considered an exempt employee. AKA you can work 90 hours in a week and still make the same amount of your base salary without overtime. If you are an HOURLY EMPLOYEE then you're non-exempt and they MUST pay you overtime for every hr over 40hrs. I also don't think I've ever heard of a civil service job being hourly... so they can work you to death and still pay you the same ugly penny

no... that's illegal. http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/mwposter_PF.htm

a lot of corporate phone systems also require you to dial '9' to get an outside line... so to call 911, you REALLY need to dial '9-911'... something a lot of people dont understand - so in an emergency you dial 911 and get nothing... so if you have a 7 digit# in your head, you KNOW you have to dial 911. Not an excuse, but just an example

... made the front page headlines of MSNBC. Great..........

There's a ton of bluetooth head pieces out there... what's everyone think is the best? they all claim to be but I know that's hardly the truth.

Cingular also came out with the Treo 750 today... it couteracts the Verizon windows based treo... but it's even better!

You should be able to play it on your computer... you "technically" can only change regions I believe 4 or 5 times on a dvd drive in a computer before it becomes "locked" but you can find software online to get past that