Circleville Fire crews cut medical calls 11/16/09

[JetPhoto 626]

Fire crews cut medical calls

TOWN OF WALLKILL — Last year, Circleville firefighters responded to 176 medical emergency calls in its district — one-third of the total calls it handled.

Now, they're looking to cut those numbers significantly

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091116/NEWS/911160319/-1/NEWS[/quote}

[firefighter36 52]

How will this benefit taxpayers? Saved fuel and treads on tires? Reading between the lines, it seems as though the training requirements and available personnel for response seems to be the bigger factor. How much of the 600,000 budget will they really cut by not responding to medical calls?

I don't say this to be critical, nor am I familiar with their situation out there. I am merely curious as to how much the department expects to save by making this move.

[latemedic39 4]

You would think that in the economic times that we are in you would want t respond to more calls to justify th budget in place already to support the amount of apparatus that most departments keep on hand as for paying for class it is still covered by nys doh and if you stop doing ems calls you would lose the first responder status and would have to pay for all ems classes so dont know this situation is a double edge sword as a taxpayer i would wonder why you are not doing ems calls yet asking for a brand new rescue truck for 750,000 (not circleville ) but just in general . the best for the public is (im gonna get bashed here lol) consolidation of services so that the money spent on services and trucks is worth while instead of going 3rd and 4th dispatch for a call and you get one truck off the floor and you still have 4 more pieces of apparatus left.

[helicopper 1,050]

How will this benefit taxpayers? Saved fuel and treads on tires? Reading between the lines, it seems as though the training requirements and available personnel for response seems to be the bigger factor. How much of the 600,000 budget will they really cut by not responding to medical calls?

I don't say this to be critical, nor am I familiar with their situation out there. I am merely curious as to how much the department expects to save by making this move.

You are probably right. The spokesperson says that most of the time the ambulance is there already when they arrive so their response times can't be very good - maybe because of personnel availability?

I don't think they'll cut their budget now that their call volume is decreasing by 1/3. That's part of the problem.

[MJP399 4]

what type of department is circleville?

[v85 212]

All volunteer.

[50-65 205]

Circleville, is an all volunteer fire department. MLSS has an ambulance stationed there so it wouldn't seem unlikely that the ambulance would be first on scene. We stopped running EMS calls years ago. At the time, ems calls were 60% of our call volume. At the end however, we would show up and 2 ambulances would be on scene so it really made no sense for us to continue to respond. We will still respond if requested.

I really don't think that it will make any difference to the taxpayers in Circleville. I don't think that the budget will go down any as probably most budget items are fixed costs such as insurance, etc.

[NWFDMedic 58]

You would think that in the economic times that we are in you would want t respond to more calls to justify th budget in place already to support the amount of apparatus that most departments keep on hand as for paying for class it is still covered by nys doh and if you stop doing ems calls you would lose the first responder status and would have to pay for all ems classes so dont know this situation is a double edge sword as a taxpayer i would wonder why you are not doing ems calls yet asking for a brand new rescue truck for 750,000 (not circleville ) but just in general . the best for the public is (im gonna get bashed here lol) consolidation of services so that the money spent on services and trucks is worth while instead of going 3rd and 4th dispatch for a call and you get one truck off the floor and you still have 4 more pieces of apparatus left.

I don't think the purpose of a fire department is to respond to calls to justify a budget. Their job is to provide necessary services to the community. As far as the DOH is concerned, a fire department can still be a first response agency without doing calls that are strictly EMS because they respond to a number of incidents where medical care may be needed. So long as they keep their agency code, they should be fine for funding.

[firefighter36 52]

Consolidation is a lot easier said than done. Buzz words like consolidation, stream-lining, & efficiency are all great for commissioners, officers, city managers, council members, and "concerned citizens groups," etc. like to toss around to make the public, politicians and themselves feel good and sound important.

I see and hear a lot of people talking about, welcoming, or arguing about, avoiding, & bashing consolidation. Before any changes are made, a study by a recognized agency should be completed to ensure that the new arrangement will meet all recognized standards for running a fire department. Plenty of public projects have cost over runs, in fact, I can't remember a recent project such as a bridge, road, etc that has been finished by government on-time, on budget.

While that all most definitely sounds cynical, I am a champion of consolidation, so long as the end result can produce superior response times, adequate staffing, and adequate equipment to mitigate emergencies, all for a reasonable, comparable cost to that of the current services in place. For some reason, such arrangements, even if found, meet a great deal of resistance.

As I said in my last post, I'm not familiar with the situation out there, and I claim no expertise, but I did look at the district's website for information and found very little. I looked on the Circleville FD website and was unable to find copies of the budget online, so I guess it is hard to tell for sure what can be saved. I'll probably catch some heat for my next point, but I'll take the risk. While not totally accurate, when dividing their budget (600,000 as stated in the article) by call volume, the "cost per call" out there nearly equal to or higher than in some career departments. We can dispute the accuracy of such an equation, but name a combination or career department where the above mentioned players don't use the same measurement to dispute taxes, budgets, equipment, staffing, etc.

We shouldn't have to justify our overall existence, but we do need to ensure that the right combination of personnel and equipment exists to provide the right service when it is needed in a prompt, professional, and safe manner.

Edited November 18, 2009 by mbendel36

[JohnnyOV 2]

I don't think the purpose of a fire department is to respond to calls to justify a budget. Their job is to provide necessary services to the community. As far as the DOH is concerned, a fire department can still be a first response agency without doing calls that are strictly EMS because they respond to a number of incidents where medical care may be needed. So long as they keep their agency code, they should be fine for funding.

Talk to any fire department that is career / combo south of the mason dixon line, and EMS calls is what justifies them as being career / combo. About 80% of their call volume is EMS. Even though, such as in Florida, you have paid ambulances stationed around a city 24/7 with an EMT and a Paramedic, you have a fire engine respond with 4 paramedics to all EMS calls...