Idling ambulance better positioned to save lives

[x635 4,066]

An idling ambulance is better positioned to save lives

by Rod Brouhard

It's getting harder to find a place to park these days. Not just in your car as you jockey for choice real estate at the mall, but in an ambulance — while on duty.

Ambulances in Modesto do not have stations. We post in certain areas to wait for emergency calls the way guards are posted in certain places for protection. We sit and wait for the next call while people on the sidewalks stroll by, craning to see why an ambulance is idling in the parking lot.

We get some strange looks.

While we wait, we can be oblivious to the outside world: reading books, eating lunch or furiously typing away on our laptop computers. When we do make eye contact with the pedestrian passing by our window, he suddenly clutches his chest and feigns a coronary. I'm not sure how long a true cardiac patient would have to lie on the ground near my ambulance before I'd realize he wasn't kidding and get out to check. I hope I'll never find out.

Some people approach us and tap on the window. Kids usually want to know why we're sitting there. Adults usually want directions. And though it happens rarely, some people just want us to leave.

Ambulances don't stay in one place long. If we're not called away to an emergency, we are constantly rearranged so we're spread out as evenly as possible. Ambulances in Modesto have a commitment to be at the scene of an emergency in less than 8 minutes. By spreading out evenly across town, we are better prepared to respond quickly.

That creates the parking problem.

Some people just don't like ambulances parking near their homes or businesses. We can be loud — and not just the sirens, either. You can hear the low, throaty rumble of the diesel engines from a long way away, and the heaters and air conditioners work only when the motors are running.

Most who are offended call the ambulance company to complain. Some are more brazen, coming to the window of the ambulance and demanding that we leave. One crew was sprayed with a garden hose as if the ambulance could be rinsed away.

It's not all bad. When ambulances worked 24 hours at a time, companies had even more trouble finding decent locales for permanent stations and ran into even more opposition from neighbors.

People who complain if the ambulance is too loud seem to be the same people who complain if the ambulance is too late. When an ambulance has to park farther away because no one in your neighborhood was willing to let it sit near their home or business, you might reap the consequences of that denial.

I'm not expecting invitations to have ambulances idling under a tired public's bedroom windows at midnight. I am asking for a little tolerance and some understanding of the need for ambulance crews to be somewhere all the time.

Threats against ambulance crews should not be excused

Sadly, the most dangerous element of the job can be in dealing with the very population we are asked to serve.

Brouhard is a paramedic in Modesto and director of the Emergency Medical Services program at Modesto Junior College. E-mail him at columns@modbee.com.

reprint courtesy Modesto Bee http://www.modbee.com

[IzzyEng4 427]

In CT, many of the private ambulance services have always post their ambulances is sepcific spots and even "backed filled" them. Greater response time in urban areas. Just look at New Haven and Bridgeport.

[JBE 328]

Now that is a refreshing read. Although FDNY Fire and EMS dispatch are two separate entities, I can't think of how many times I got phone calls from people on the upper East Side and West Side complaining about a bus sitting on the corner. I should have thrown in this guys sentiment about knowing it's right there if you need it.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

Can't blame someone for a quality of life issue that they have. Then there is the flip side that an idling ambulance is against Environmental laws and DOH policy. Who exactly is going to enforce them? Your guess is as good as mine. But what is good for one group is good for all.

[STAT213 332]

One thing that is rarely mentioned by those lauding SSM is what it does to the crews. I did SSM for 6 years and am lucky to still have a functioning back. Granted you do find ways to beat the system, but a cold snowy night with no calls stuck in the slowest post is just that.

The commercial services that are usually for SSM are doing it to SAVE MONEY. It is more efficient to have your people out on the road instead of housing them in stations. If you station them, you need more crews. SSM benefits the company and they sell/spin it by saying its best for the customer. The only loser is the mope in the truck.

[WAS967 97]

Then there is the flip side that an idling ambulance is against Environmental laws and DOH policy.

I understand it being environmentally unfriendly? But it's against DOH policy?

[Guest]

Idling of Emergency Vehicles

Bureau of EMS Policy Statement

Policy Statement # 05-01

Date 02/14/05

Subject Re: Idling of Emergency Vehicles

Supercedes/Updates New

In an effort to improve response times, provide the correct resources to patients, Emergency Medical Services agencies are more frequently posting their vehicles in designated locations within their response areas. As a result many emergency vehicles engines sit idling for extended periods of time to facilitate proper climate controls. Because of the associated health and environmental risks, excessive idling of trucks and buses is a violation of Federal, New York State and New York City environmental laws.

...

The Department of Health, Bureau of EMS considers on-scene operations, or the positioning of an ambulance/EMS response vehicle in designated locations within a community, as a component of a planned emergency response system, to be emergency operation.

...

Unless in emergency operation, ambulances and first response vehicles ARE NOT exempt from the provisions of these environment conservation laws. The penalties for violation of these laws may include fines ranging from $250 to $15,000.

so, it's not illegal because the DOH considers SSM to be "emergency operations" and is therefore exempt.

[tbendick 27]

The Department of Health, Bureau of EMS considers on-scene operations, or the positioning of an ambulance/EMS response vehicle in designated locations within a community, as a component of a planned emergency response system, to be emergency operation

[Guest aussiegeorge]

i carn't beleive you have ambulances just parking on streets just waiting for calls,i know medic units are a lot busier than most fire companys,but boy not my cup of tea not having a place to go back to after a call just for a cup of tea etc and what about at 2am not much fun sitting in a bus.I know also on some tours a medic crew will start at the station and not get back till the end of the tour because they are busy,but at least here they can go back to a station if they have the chance,don't think the medics union would have it any other way.

[Guest paramedico987]

YONKERS REPLACED WITH MODESTO IN ORIGINAL ARTICLE?