Westchester EMS Mutual Aid Plan

[barbosa10 7]

This thread is like Déjà Vu. We've seen how many threads with the same information?

1. We identity the problem exists. Check. No secret there. I'm not sure anyone with a modicum of common sense would disagree.

2. A bunch of people offer legitimate suggestions (or sarcastic, yet pertinent jokes about it.)

3. The next day, nothing actually changes.

I think a more productive thread would focus on how do we finally bring pressure to bear on the decision makers.

You are very true..the problem needs to be resolved with public administrators first then create the plans within the EMS community then you need to figure out how everything will be paid for...grants..proposals?

[barbosa10 7]

I say emtbravo is a perfect way to start with a process to get this system rolling..a big chunk of (important names) first responders are on this site..a proposal, inlcuding a grant, needs to be created with the problems outlined, signed by the masses, and sent to lawmakers up in albany for a signature.

[INIT915 1,119]

I understand this thread is like Deja Vu. My personal goal is to make EMS in this county, a reliable, well oiled machine before I die.

I couldn't agree more, about everything you posted. My point was, and remains, these threads pop up every so often, usually addressing the fire service or EMS (and occasionally) law enforcement. Everyone agrees the problem exists. This thread will eventually end, and a few weeks from now, a reincarnation of it will surface, and the cycle repeats, and repeats, and repeats. Just do a quick search, I'll wait...

What all the posts lack is a real plan of action. A legitimate grassroots effort to make some change. You can talk about contacting your elected officials. Good luck with that. Lots of lobbies have started there or tried that. Emergency services are not the power player in legislative affairs that others are. While there are a handfuls of fairly successful unions, that is about it.

Who is going to come up with a REAL plan to actually get something started? I personally feel like the smart money will be on someone like BNechis, but someone needs to take the first concrete step.

The problem has been identified. An array of potential solutions have been floated. Important stakeholders have been identified.

My question. What's next?

Edited May 23, 2011 by INIT915

[INIT915 1,119]

I say emtbravo is a perfect way to start with a process to get this system rolling..a big chunk of (important names) first responders are on this site..a proposal, inlcuding a grant, needs to be created with the problems outlined, signed by the masses, and sent to lawmakers up in albany for a signature.

You say that, but then why, in 2011, are we still "discussing" it and not taking any action? Those "important names" are aware of the situation, the ones on this site, as well as the ones who are not.

[barbosa10 7]

You say that, but then why, in 2011, are we still "discussing" it and not taking any action? Those "important names" are aware of the situation, the ones on this site, as well as the ones who are not.

Laziness im assuming is the reason why the problem hasnt been pushed yet. I mean the problem is defined, its serious enough to make a valid case. the money is alway available for situations like this, you just need crate a proper grant.

[JohnnyOV 2]

I couldn't agree more, about everything you posted. My point was, and remains, these threads pop up every so often, usually addressing the fire service or EMS (and occasionally) law enforcement. Everyone agrees the problem exists. This thread will eventually end, and a few weeks from now, a reincarnation of it will surface, and the cycle repeats, and repeats, and repeats. Just do a quick search, I'll wait...

What all the posts lack is a real plan of action. A legitimate grassroots effort to make some change. You can talk about contacting your elected officials. Good luck with that. Lots of lobbies have started there or tried that. Emergency services are not the power player in legislative affairs that others are. While there are a handfuls of fairly successful unions, that is about it.

Who is going to come up with a REAL plan to actually get something started? I personally feel like the smart money will be on someone like BNechis, but someone needs to take the first concrete step.

The problem has been identified. An array of potential solutions have been floated. Important stakeholders have been identified.

My question. What's next?

Totally agreed. With emergency providers themselves being the only real group of individuals who truly care about and understand what we do, maybe we should forgo getting a grant and relying on some politician to do the work for us, and do it ourselves.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

I understand this thread is like Deja Vu. My personal goal is to make EMS in this county, a reliable, well oiled machine before I die. A VERY long term goal of mine. Fire in this county could use a little help too, but lets admit it, EMS is a joke. I admit that EMTBravo is probably not the best place to try and get this accomplished at, but you need to at least start somewhere, gather a group of individuals and actually get something rolling. What better place to start then right here with the conglomerate of emergency providers from around the area.

I've laid low after posting this topic, just to see where it goes and let other roll with it. Like the Capt and others have said, jumping into a massive MCI drill with every agency from the county spells out disaster. Like any other training, start with the basics and work up to professional level. Some agencies have difficulty staging with their own 1-2 ambulances in an area where they can easily leave the scene once the patient is loaded. Start with that, and scene security/accountability, and maybe we can move up to including 3 or 4 other agencies at another time. Once that comes as naturally as pouring milk into your cereal, then we can move up to a larger scale incident.

I think the one thing that everyone who's commented so far can agree on is that the status quo is not acceptable in this county for EMS. It is possible that the only way to actually get some agencies to change their ways, would be to involve the press, take out ads in the paper, and billboards on the side of the road and post facts. Maybe then a fire would get lit under the rear ends of certain individuals to change. Other then that, talking about it amongst ourselves generally yields zero advancement or progression. Getting the public involved and letting them know, "You have a very good chance you'll be waiting 20-30 minutes for an ambulance during your heart attack," or "If your bus crashes right now, we have 30 ambulances around the area that we own, but we can only effectively staff 5 of them total," might entice some public outcry for change.

Handling this in house and promoting positive change without involving the public would be the best course of action obviously, since John Q who has 0 idea about emergency service would offer their 2 cents on every little thing. So before some large scale event happens in this county, why not actually sit down and come up with a realistic plan of action? Make some progressive change that a majority of agencies can agree with, and bring it to the County legislator. Tell them what we'd like to accomplish, and see if it can get done. Will it be one of the most massive undertakings in this counties history, absolutely. But what better time to start then right now, by being assertive, rather then reactive?

Thats a great goal to have and can't say that many of us who take the time to post on here on legit issues and questions don't either just maybe more on the local or local regional level as you have to start with your own house first. But I can give you a good place to start. Read about the pacific campaign in WW II and the Marines island hopping. Cause that's how you need to start on each little island. We still can't get agencies on fire and ems to actually use IMS as it should and I can say in my experience EMS is farther along then the fire side. Tried, tested and true..it works to make running and managing incidents easier. Then we have the different layers and I deal with it often...I can respond set up command have things rolling and (on both fire and ems sides) have someone with less experience, training not on scene but start making decisions on things that I'm there handling and have a picture of. Or assume because they arrived and they carry a title from their agencies that they are now the IC by I don't know what. Particularly if you are on the professional side and have been running all day and know what agencies are getting out rapidly or not. The fix isn't hard on paper..the fix with mentality is mt. everest. I've been climbing for years.

[emp305 32]

Great offer thanks

Everyone needs to remember that an excerise is not the 1st step. I have seen many agencies try to hold an MCI drill and they fall flat on their face, because the members have not 1st trained in triage, ICS and MCI managment. Start small, if you cant handle a drill with 4 patients in a 2 car MVA, dont try for 30 in a school bus. Work up to it.

I’m by no means issuing an open invite to large scale futility. But I would like to see who might really be interested in beginning the process towards something that might actually be useful. At this point I would welcome a table top exercise with bordering agencies. A drill would be nice, a functional exercise after that and so on.

[emp305 32]

I’m by no means issuing an open invite to large scale futility. But I would like to see who might really be interested in beginning the process towards something that might actually be useful. At this point I would welcome a table top exercise with bordering agencies. A drill would be nice, a functional exercise after that and so on.

Is now when the thread ends??

[RushTheBus 10]

It looks like WC DES has removed the EMS Mutual Aid plan from their website. Does anybody have a copy of this or does anybody know if there is a new version? The incident in Ossining today made me think about it.

Thanks.

[INIT915 1,119]

It looks like WC DES has removed the EMS Mutual Aid plan from their website. Does anybody have a copy of this or does anybody know if there is a new version? The incident in Ossining today made me think about it.

Thanks.

Can you elaborate on what the Ossining case was today?

[RushTheBus 10]

I don't know the specifics, but there was a report of a possible person with a gun inside the High School. I know the schools were placed on lockdown and were swept by PD.

[amr6334 16]

I heard the same thing on the Ossining FB Page. Kind of really scary

[Dinosaur 844]

I don't know the specifics, but there was a report of a possible person with a gun inside the High School. I know the schools were placed on lockdown and were swept by PD.

What does that have to do with the County EMS Mutual Aid Plan?

[RushTheBus 10]

I didn't say that it had anything to do with it, I just said that it made me think of it.

But that being said, mutual aid EMS was requested yesterday (for standby in quarters), as well as the response of the EMS Mutual Aid Zone Coordinator. I was wondering if any of these procedures had been included in an "official" county mutual aid plan. Not to discredit the great work that OVAC does, but this might have also been a good opportunity to request an EMS task force, or at least more of a response than just 1 BLS and 1 ALS unit. I understand that this was not an active shooter, and it was just a report of a person with a gun in a school, but wouldn't we rather have these units responding and staging and available if needed than scrambling at the last minute when the situation escalates? Especially during the daytime when we know that coverage in Westchester County is oftentimes a struggle.

Full disclosure, I'm not trying to start a war here, or talk about what OVAC did/did not do right, just looking for some constructive discussion on the overall Mutual Aid plan, and Westchester's handling of potential MCI scenarios.

[Jybehofd 85]

Your thinking pro-active. Westchester is mostly re-active unless it's a federal mandate cough like the airport.

Who would man the mass medical unit if it was called out to the northern part of the county ?

[wedgeclose 59]

Just chiming in here...you are correct on the timing of a drill.....do it at 10 am...or 3 am and see what you get. No notice no clues...do it in a part of Westchester that is notoriously UNDERSTAFFED during those hours and see what you get...i say chaos which in the case of an MCI with so many buffs and not enuffs..... I don't have a solution but it scares me everyday to think what would happen. Perhaps a central county EMS with 2 or three busses and a supervisor ready to respond and take charge of a scene no matter the juristiction! Lets face it from WMC to any part of the county you really are no more than 10 to 15 minutes away from anywhere. God forbid a commercial aircraft MCI near HPN....from WMC its a 8 to 10 minute response....from Yonkers its 15....Empress could handle first MCI response to south county....I guess WEMS could handle north county but a central county should come out of WMC.

[S1720G 62]

Truth