sympathomedic

Sorry, but I can't get enough of this clip:

The legislation was intruduced by SENATOR Pataki. Older folks here may recall he was Governor Pataki AFTER he was a Senator, but that was 4 governors back. So I would urgently ask that you not hold your breath waiting for that change to come through. A Fire District can push to form an Ambulance district. The Town has to do the actual forming. That would involve admitting you can't fix it yourself and also the possibility of giving up a portion of your domain (providing EMS). Therefore I don't think you will see it often. I did read about one NY FD that did do that, though. Not sure who or where. NYS has an awful lot of special districts- sewer, water, fire, EMS, streetlighting, lake, business improvement, sanitation, school... There may be little willingness to make yet another one, even though in this case it makes sense.

In Hawthorne, Empress EMT's staff the ambulance, and Transcare provides the medic. So if you see an Empress EMT driving a Transcare flycar, now you know why!

The original post had a link that mentioned "Licenced" dispatchers. In CT is there such a thing and a dispatching license? Can you get a ticket for dispatching too fast, or changing channels without signaling?

Well, is still it a violation if they don't transport anyone? Can they get paid to just drive around in an area outside their CON? And if the president just happens to be driving in the same direction, on the same road, at the same time... and then he needs an ambulance and flags you down....? Is THAT OK?

If you recall a few months ago the DCFD ambulance unit assigned to the White House ran out of fuel when it was supposed to join a motorcade taking the Obamas to dinner. Gauge had been broken for months and no one filled the tank or got the gauge fixed. I assume MLSS dis better than that? http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/08/13/obama-white-house-motorcade-ambulance-out-of-gas/2647831/

Rumor has it it has already been sold to a department that lost a lot of money on a new truck whose builder went bankrupt. Not sure which or who. Out of state, I believe.

As a 30+ year EMT/28+ medic and 4+ CPRP medic, I just can't imagine waking up and seeing a call that I did getting a 13 post thread. You give it your best. You make critical decisions in the span of seconds, decisions based on presentation, training and experience. If it works, you feel great for little while. If it doesn't, you feel like s*** for a long while. We all know that when we show up. I wasn't anywhere near this call, but I sure do feel bad if the person who was is watching it get dissected here. That said, the Bird thread is valid.

I am stepping outside my comfort zone, as I am not al all familiar with PFD ops. I don't think they send VFD members on EMS runs. I think it is the sole job of the paid staff. I never saw a volunteer FD member on an EMS run- other than an MVA. If so, than big or small volly numbers wouldn't make a difference.

Pretty soon they will need to update that with "2014, got rid of the worst PCR software system EVER". (EMSCharts). But as usual I digress. The origianal post was 'Peekskill Fire Protection Jeopardized by EMS". I think jeapordized is a strong word. Maybe "compromised', 'weakened'. But I bet others would say, "Peekskill citizens get enhanced service for their FD dollar with the only FD in Westchester to perform ALS." I bet a look at the number of fires versus the number of lives saved by the fire medics would support the second one. If COP fire protection is negatively affected by EMS, why then is not ALL fire protection done by FD's that commit ANY resources to EMS also negatively affected? The answer is that it is part of the job of serving the public. It is like saying that responses to car fires endanger the protection of structures. When was the last time anyone "saved" a burning car?

Now THAT is pretty cool!

Yes, Velcro is correct, I think. I recall the first 35 guys- the system paid for class and they did a tour or so a week for free to repay that cost. Many of them continued to volunteer even after the loan was paid off by working. I must say it is a GREAT system to work in- good trucks, good gear, great bosses, comfy stations and a forgiving call volume. Not at all sure about that advisary board, but it makes sense. Brand new system, first ALS in that area, everyone wants to have a say. Now years later, the system in kind of invisible. I was a Yorktown 34 medic when the 35 system started. I have a memory it was just a single medic truck. That CON sounds iffy. I think Buchanon being in the TOC would be included in a TOC license. I believe my 35-11 boss is away on vacation. I will ask him this stuff and maybe even get him to read the thread. He was an early 35 guy, not sure one of the very first. Getting back on track, I am pretty sure I have heard of cases where the 39 guys rushed back to get an engine for a fire call that occured on the heels of an EMS run, and vice versa. As we all know, both kinds of calls can be of a rather non-urgen nature and can be handled quickly to free up for more urgent matters. But sometimes not. Maybe a 39 guy will join the thread? Could also be they don't want to face any job static by commenting also.

I will try to add some historical insight here, but I might get it a bit wrong. I have been a Corlandt "35 medic" a few years now. The Town of Cortlandt got an ALS flycar license, set up a program and started running its system. We are NOT Town empolyees. We technically work for Hudson Valley Hospital. The Town pays HVH to pay us. That way we don't have to be at all concerned about getting any of the generous benefits that other governement employees are burdened with, like LOD injury pay, pension or insurance. It makes for pretty low budgets. The TOC library gets a bigger budget than the CRP does. After the system began, the City of Peeksill asked if they could join. PFD had for some reason a large number of FF's who were medics. So a deal was struck that CRP would become CPRP. More gear and trucks would be bought and the two flycasrs would be deployed and staffed by the FF's from PFD, as noted peviously- engine goes OOS when it's FF needs to be a medic, AND the flycar is OOS when it's medic needs to be a fireman. I think COP pays some $$$ to TOC for cost of gear, trucks etc. $50,000/year sounds familiar. When the PFD staff are doing medical calls, they are NOT under the FD's control, and I think I recall that was their demand. They operate under the CPRP director. They are called "39 medic" since they are on a different tone-out channel, but when being a medic they opeate under the CPRP director. Whoever is closest to the call gets it. 35 medics get called into Peekskill and 39 medics get call out Cortlandt. There can be one or two 35 and 39 medics on, so numbers can be 2-4 flycars, based on scheduleing factors. These numbers are VERY carefully monitored by COP admin, and they are always looking to avoid paying TOC using numbers as ammo, saying they do more, so should pay less. As far as medics on BLS... I have no issue with it. I was an EMT before I became a medic. My patch says EMT on it. If you need medical help, I am there for you. If you want to pay me medic pay to do BLS, that is fine. If I am not available due to that, well there are bosses to deal with that. I take care of the sick and injured. The CRP policy is that the medic on the call is to be asked if they will ride in a BLS. We can say "No". Of course that leaves the medic stranded with the pt awaiting an ambulance from somewhere. If there is low engine availability on the PFD end due to the deal they wanted and got, then it seems the cheapest thing to do is to have COP hire civilian medics to staff those "39" trucks, or pay TOC to do it. THAT is a COP decision, and not up to the minions of EMT bravo. I doubt my brother 39 guys would be happy about it either. They cannot run ALS ambulances as they don't have a license to do that. Empress puts ONE EMT at PVAC. PVAC is VERY busy and often has multiple calls.

Seth Who? Happy birthday, Bud. Proud to have you as a friend and have had you as a partner.

Hey! Don't forget a single EMS/ALS providor for the three municipalities! If some credit on gonna be given for one agency covering more than one municipality, give some to EVAC. (And Cortlandt medics, and Mamaroneck ALS district, and WEMS' 45 medics {that one is like, 8 towns and villages!}

I am not 100% sure, but I think on the VHF side they only had 1 citywide channel. Any idea as to what the two UHF citywides will be used for, one versus the other?

So are they using both right now? or is there going to be a synced switch to these new ones?

The heading of the post says hazmat truck, but I don't see that wording on the unit. Is this a special hazmat unit, or a generic major unit response unit? Either way, nice looking truck. It appears to have a Federal Q, which is, after all, critical. Unless it is a fake federal. Either way, I look forward to working alongside the YPD ESU with this new gear.

It is Yonkers we are talking about, so nothing can be ruled out.

Barry I remember many a night in bed at night in station 1 overnight when the rigs were backing in upstairs. The sounds the ceiling made as the trucks entered the bay had me in fear I would be crushed. No idea what the weight rating was and how close it was to the weight it had to bear, but the cracking noise was impressive.

I mean no harm, but I would rather not know a BP than have the machine give me a wrong one. I would rather not know, and know that I don't know, than think I know and have it be that what I know turns out to be wrong. The respiratory rate counter is so innacurate as to be useless. The 5 second BP works about 1/5 of the time (it only works if the machne catches the BP during inflation, rather than having to fully inflate then slowly deflate.) Most of the time it needs to fully cycle. I love the device, but it just isn't gonna happen that I base a treatment decision on a BP taken by any machine. JEMS did a study showing how innacurate ALL machine vitals are, and it showed that the shockier the patient, the more innacurate the vitals. When the Zoll is right, it is pretty accurate, but it can be WAAAY off. It is very easy to not be bothered taking real vitals and just roboticly documenting machine vitals, but it is at best = quality care compared to REAL vitals, and at worst it can lead you to perform an improper intervention- fluid challenge, lasix, nitro, trendelenburg etc. The CPR feedback seems a real advance. Like all things medical, a study will need to be done to see if it makes us do better CPR and if that = better outcomes.

Doesn't the ASPCA have to sign off that it is dog friendly?

I use the Zoll at Empress and I really like it. It is WAAY lighter and the batteries last a long time. Being an EMS guy, I can always find something to c/o. The hooks that let you hang it on the cot can be very tough to unhook. I guess they wanted to make sure it never unhooked itself and fell. Zoll has a very good online training video. I find the auto cuff better than most, but I must emphasize, AUTO CUFFS CAN RARELY BE TRUSTED. I had a very shocky pt, with every sign of shock in the book, and the Zoll gave me a normal BP. I had it try again and got the 70/50 I knew it must be. If you sync EKG's to a PCR program, one cool thing about the Zoll is that it can sync WHILE still monitoring the pt. So as I approach the ER, I have it send the calls worth of vitals and EKG to the tablet, and I walk in with all that stuff done. All tha being said, I have never used a Philips, so it may very well be better.

Probably one of my bigger mistakes to post on this. Everyone made fun of horse drawn rigs instead of man pulled rigs. Same with steamers over hand pumps. And mechanized ladders over mechanically raised ladders. Sounds like silly stuff. These guys are firemen on a rig. The end. Want to be taken seriously, then act the part. As for calling 60 unprofessional... I feel that is about the lowest thing that can be said about anyone in the public service field. It does NOT apply here. Save that word for when it truly applies. You may not have to wait too long.

I borrowed a camera to get these pics of very impressive ladder placement by Yonkers FD. The boom in pic one was lifted off the truck bed, over an engine and swung 3/4 way around, then elevated full up and over a tree before coming down. You can see it is resting on phone wires. The phone pole to the left prohibited a direct placement. The truck was backed up onto the sidewalk for this. Pic two shows the fire bldg. Pics 3,4, and 5 shows the other ladder. Note the rubber turn markers are both bent as the truck JUST made the alley. If you can't tell, this is a TOWER LADDER. Forger the rig, the BUCKET JUST fit into the alley. Also note the boom under the wires. Crew had to limbo under the wires, as gettng into the bucket would have been impossible with the rear of the rig corking up the alleyway.