WAS967

I can't speak for other ALS providers on the board, but I personally respect each and every EMT I work with regardless of clue level or other factors. I looks at those without a clue as an opportunity to train someone and make them a better EMT. Those who DO have a clue are invaluable in times of crisis and for trying calls. Problem up here (compared the city since you mention it) is call volume. EMTs just don't get the exposure to critical calls that they might in the city. Techs in the city more often get to a call before the medics and have been in the hot seat more than EMTs in this area. The problem falls back on ALS reliance. EMTs up here in the burbs are too heavily reliant on ALS to provide care. The EMTs just don't have experience. Case in point. I did a call recently for a seizure patient. BLS called for an expedite in rainy weather. (There's that word again Tom). I get there and find out the reason they called for the step-up is because the patient was "vomiting blood". In the end it was a run of the mill seizure call. Patient had biten thier tongue (a common occurance in grand mal seizures) and that was causing the "vomiting of blood". An experienced BLS crew would have known better and in the end, should have been able to handle the call without ALS intervention. I'll forgive them a little since the patient only spoke broken english, but you can do better than telling me the patient just has good PMSx4 yet you have no vitals. You don't need to speak spanish to get vitals folks. I'll end my rant here.

If you're not in service, then you shouldn't be responding. Of course you're in service if you are responding. I see what you are saying tho and think that everyone should just use the KISS method (Keep it simple stupid). A simple "45Medic1 responding to, X Y Ave,...." is what I use.

Uhm. No they're not. 44.38 and 44.380 are the same frequency. The trailing zero just implies greater accuracy in the transmitter. If you tune into each of those frequencies with say a Bearcat scanner, they will both recieve the same transmissions. Same applies for tuning into 44.3800.

Bee Line Buses are free until sometime in May anyways. Kind of "payback" for all the suffering the stick caused.

Ah. Good ole WARY. "The Voice of Westchester Community College". I wonder if they actually got thier new studio. I used to DJ for a short period there many years ago. Would you believe they only transmit at (IIRC) 10 watts? :-P

You're both right. The trailing zeros are redundant and sometimes dropped.

The Pelhams dropping New Rochelle EMS as thier primary provider seems like such a big mistake.

"Big Balls" - AC/DC

You guys actually would pull a Cont. Village until all the way down to Millwood? Wow. Talk about a response time.

Hey, if he's ballsey enough to write the Mayor, why the heck not? :twisted:

Tell that to the money grubbing politicos that nit pick over the cost of an EMS system that probably is only a few 100k a year and has more direct impact over human life than most other town services combined.

The first part.

They need to move the helo pad to the area that is the parking lot between the ERs and Macy pavilion. Reclaim the helo pad that is there now and expand the other parking lot, or make a seperate one to replace the spots lost by the helo pad. I have to agree with the whole risk of landing on the pad as is. People see a helicopter landing, they stop and stare, they stop driving along the road there, etc. No doubt in my mind that someone will eventually get hit by something, only to sue the hospital.

I am a huge fan of the CISD system/team/process. I've used them for teams involved in bad calls. I've used them for myself. It's an excellent thing to have to try and mitigate the impact of a severe/extreme situation. I've sat there with Chiefs and said, maybe we should call in a CISD debrief. Had one say "no, we'll be okay". But in the end thankfully they did the right thing and called in the team. Some people may be too manly to sit down in a group and pour out the emotions. But it doesn't have to be a group. It can be one on one. Something. Anything. Bottling up the emotions that an event like 9/11 can bring on is not the solution. Eventually it will build up and manifest itself in ways that even the strongest of us cannot predict. The only solution is to get help. The sooner the better. Poo on anyone that says that dispatchers don't need it becuase they aren't there, they don't see it, etc. Crap. Ever sit on the other end of a phoneline while a histerical mother is screaming that her baby isn't breathing? Ever have to tell young kid how to do CPR on thier parent who just collapsed? There is a HUGE sense of being powerless as a dispatcher because you just wish you could teleport over the phonelines, so you could do something other than just talk or provide direction. I think CISD would be very valuable in these cases. I can only imagine the poor dispatcher that had to sit there and listen to the cries of those firefighters who were trapped in that burning building earlier this year only to hear that they had to jump, some of them to thier deaths. :sad:

The helicopters are indeed still using the old helicopter in the back. Which is absurd when you think about how far the team has to walk to get a patient to the Trauma ER. The artist renditions of the new helicopter pad show the "pit" being filled with water. I've seen some rain accumulating in there lately. Maybe they are waiting for it to fill up. [-(

Oh sure. Blame te bump for the crappy ride you get in the back of that thing. :-> IS that the rig with no window through to the cab so you need to radio the driver to tell him to stop? :-> Kent's rig used to be like that (for all I know it could still be).

When I first looked i thought "UGH, a BLUE fire truck?" But then as I looked at the pictures and took it all I soon realize how hot that color is. I like that blue. I wish WEMS would use that blue. Good choice. 8)

Which ER is that? Yeah I hear you about the room and it's original purpose. But your post brings up a more interesting thing I've had problems with. You should have to go around searching for a hand wash station. Yeah, it's great that they have a sink in each room. Yeah it's great that we can jump in a shower if we need to cool off (I mean decon stuff). But I shouldn't have to "intrude" in a trauma room to use the sink. Or have to wait for someone to get out of the can/head/crapper/john/toilet/bathroom/bano to wash my hands. ](*,)

Hopefully the bump in the road is only temporary. I seem to recall the bump outside Phelps being pretty aweful too. Has that gotten any better/smoothed out yet? When HVHC opened the new wing, they had these cobblestone "speed bumps" like they have around the other side of the building, in the front of the ER so that each and every ambulance that came in hit one or two of them going into the Emergency bay. Thankfully those went the way of the Do-Do. As for the EMS report room. I personally don't think it's that big a deal. When was the last time you were there and didn't have a place to write? There is a while seating area in Trauma that is usually underutilized. That where I usually plan myself to write a report, at least going to T-ER. For peds, I just write a quickie at the nurses station. I'm used to standing anyways. It's easier than walking back to the "report room" writing, then walking all the way back to peds for delivery. And if a nurse needs some information, they have to walk across two units to get it. I'd rather stay local.

Talk about results. Too bad there isn't any money to put in a more permanent setup like there is outside NYH-Cornell. Perhaps the County Decon/Hazmat unit could step in and find a decent solution for patients arriving with any kind of potential contamination?

Went to the new Hibachi place (Hanada) on 6 in the old "Uncorked". Not bad. Not as good as Gasho, but good for a local place and a little cheaper too. Oh, and they give you a good size Plum Wine! (hic!)

I want a Mr. Bravo! I can put him right next to my Mr. Coffee and my Mr. Radar. "I always have coffee when I watch Bravo! You know that. EVERYONE knows that!" "Of course we do sir!"

Which is worse? A supervisor that seems to do too much (criticising) or a supervisor who didn't seem to do anything? :-k

Do you have a better link? That one goes to the index and the highlighted album cycles.

Especially considering KBHVAC has had two incidents in recent memory involving a train, one major. The other was a car into the side of a train parked in station. Might be a good idea to do something similar a little further up the line. However, I'm sure they used the yards so that a drill didn't block the tracks. Maybe something up at Brewster North and invite the surrounding agencies?