Goose

Status quo for volunteers - cheery picking the jobs, but they will take your money and praise any day of the week! Good thing you and your buddy stepped up to the plate and did the right thing - this sort of stuff is less and less common, so hats off the both of you.

Commercial EMS blows and, from where i stand, actually causes many problems because they allow municipalities take the easy way out when it comes to EMS. EMS needs to be a thrid service paid for by the tax payers. As far as a union - yeah, thats great on paper. But the second you utter the word union and a boss gets wind of it, kiss your a** goodbye. Besides, there isn't much in the way of across the boad sucessful EMS unions anyhow.

WCC and DCC (i think also RCC, not sure) offer Associates Degrees in Applied Sciences - Paramedicine

Shocking? Are you serious? There is nothing shocking about this - EMS is viewed as a meat wagon a "you call, we haul" service. Why? Because, from where sit, the vast majority of people don't give a crap about their life. They care about the monetary and material possessions. Why? Well, a lot of it has to do with a society that associates ones worth with the amount of material possession they own. Secondly, people want to have something to pass on to their relatives/next of kin. That's a major reason why EMS doesn't get the funding it should (unlike FD and PD who primarily protect your property and valuables), the respect it should and recognition it should. Sometimes i wonder, myself, if I've made the right career choice at this point in my life. I've got a BA and probably could be out making 50 - 60 K out there in some cushy office gig. But you have to be happy and i do love what i do. But, the problem is, unlike PD and FD, EMS is a JOB not a CAREER here in New York. Down south and out west it's a different ball game - a paramedic (and even an EMT) can make a nice living working in the street. I discuss this all the time with my partners and people that i work with and it drives me nuts. I see people like Nita Lowey (who i wrote a 3 page letter to about how EMS is in dire straights because there is no incentive to go itno the field, and got no response) constantly standing in front of FDs or PDs or talking about grand money for this agency and that agency. That's great stuff - having well funded PDs and FDs is important but what about EMS? Our job is constantly, changing - new protocols, techniques, tools, studies come out, new drugs are developed. We are doing, in some cases, 5 times the runs of FD, get paid near nothing and have to recert every 3 years (state) and every year (mac). But just to get by you need to work 2 jobs so what time is there left for yourself or a family? Someone i talked to about this suggested that everyone that works a second job stop - just for a month - and see what would happen. Maybe that's what it would take? I don't know.

Boggles you and i both. Personally, i think it should be public information how often mutual aid is requested. Or, at the very least, someone at the County should have those numbers.

If there is any responsibility and subsequent liability on the home agency i would doubt anything would ever happen. Unless, of course, someone important in town died as a result of a lengthy response. Sadly, this hypothetical is business as usual for too many Westchester agencies.

What's the deal with this car thing? If you are so concerned with fiscal responsibility why does every volunteer department need to have 12 chiefs all with their own SUV, most of which are less than 7 years old? Or what about those million and multi-million dollar engines and trucks that just sit in the houses collecting dust? Personally speaking, i think volunteer FDs in Westchester are the biggest scam going as far as fiscal responsibility and quality of protection are concerned. All these government mandated benefits and perks make me sick. It's the biggest freaking scam going. I put my life on the line day in and day out doing quadruple the call volume (and provide a better service, overall) of 99% of these yahoos and knuckle heads and they are getting a pension for showing up a job in shorts and boat shoes or swinging by the firehouse to sign the run sheet. I should get a pension based on the number of jobs i do - all of which are answered in minutes and treated to the highest level of pre-hospital care and transported to the most appropriate facility - all without abuse of mutual aid.

Regardless, doesn't FDNY only come into Westchester for work? I'm pretty sure they will not just come up to standby in someone's headquarters.

You know what ticks me off the most about all of this? We bust our humps in the field and in the classroom keeping on top of our skills and knowledge and get scratch for it. Meanwhile the auto industry is getting billions upon billions and the UAW is still bitching. I hate to sound virulent on christmas, but those guys have a pretty sweet deal for doing unskilled assembly line labor. Maybe it's me but this Country has to get it's priorities straight.

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/

Just as an addendum to that, the delay is in the area of 30 - 45 seconds.

This crap makes me sick. Maybe Michael Savage is right, maybe liberalism is a mental disorder...

Aside from the fact that i gave myself a headache trying to translate that, i have a family i want to come home to too. Having worked in both counties where this accident occurred (and where nasty accidents frequently occur) i will tell you straight up if your "flying" down this particular stretch of Rt. 9 you are going to kill yourself - even in decent road conditions. An ambulance, especially the vans, are not race cars and while we may be able to exceed the posted speed limit you surely wont find me doing Mach 3 to any call. Like i said from the get go i have a family who i want to go home to after my tour. Regardless of the fact, EMS getting their at warp speed isn't going to get the driver cut out any faster. Besides, if we get hurt going to a job who's going to help the patient? It looks to me that the patient was transported immediately after extrication so I'm not really sure how valid your argument or statement really is. Do you honestly think the second a call comes in my partner and i are teleported to our respective seats in the ambulance? Honestly, this is the most ridiculous thing i've heard in a long time. I mean if your going to sit here and bust EMS's chops, can i make a post or comment every time i hear an FD get toned out 55 times for an AFA and then hear it go mutual aid? Either way it looks like it was a nice job by those agencies involved. Hats off.

Not for nothing, but where do we cross the line? There is nothing here that is educational or beneficial to how EMS does business. This was a troll for information on someone else's job. We know the patients age, who took the patient in and the apparent condition (and im sure some of you know the address and family name - given the way dutchess dispatches). Far too many identifying factors for me. If you were this individuals parents/family would you want all this crap to end up on the internet? I know i wouldn't. Ambulances calls and patient conditions are not public knowledge so why are they being discussed in a non-educational manor?

Do you really need to know? Probably not. But if your that interested reference your EMT text or any one of a billion websites that will outline the reasons a teenager/young child would or could go into cardiac arrest. Trolling for details online about someone's job is not really necessary.

They all should get the needle.

Either way, another example of how idiotic some Westchester municipalities are - they want the world but are never, ever willing to bite the bullet and pay up. Every time something like this hits the press it makes me sick.

EDP.

No surprise that a Physio-Control product is being held up by the FDA after some of the crap they pulled with other models. Sounds cool though.

Ahh..Westchester the land of wanting the world and not wanting to pay a dime for it...

Just a bit of a sidebar (because i don't think consolidation will ever happen) - people could care less about their lives, its the property they care about. If people cared about life as much as they do property EMS would be seen just as important and essential as a Fire Department or Police Department.

Amen, we lived life on the edge.

Had some great times up there and made some great friends but definitely glad i've since moved on. I do miss working the city though...

Because you have a staffed TMFD ladder probably less than 5 minutes away to any given address and a City of Rye ladder closer than port chester. I really could care less who gets to play at a village of mamaroneck or port chester fire, but the logistics that are pre-planned don't make a whole lot of sense. I just hope that someone's life doesn't depend on it.

x2 but don't forget Westchester. I hate lugging that tracked chair around but its far easier on the back on the decent. The o2 shelf/harness is a waste of metal. What's wrong with the patient's lap, back of the chair or the o2 duffel if need be?