Editorial: Fire department doesn’t need paramedics
Proquest LLC |
Firefighters trained as first responders, emergency medical technicians or paramedics can offer basic life support services -- bandaging wounds, splinting bones, administering oxygen, providing aspirin and using automated external defibrillators during cardiac emergencies. Firefighters trained as paramedics have the skills to offer more advanced care, but fire department rules prohibit them from acting as paramedics while on duty. Some of the trained paramedics also work for
Bailey and Moody want to free the department's paramedics to use their skills while on duty with the fire department.
The hitch is that it would cost about
Bailey says the city isn't interested in billing, which simply doesn't fit the "budget-neutral" mold.
The fire department's leaders also haven't provided evidence of a need for the department to become involved in advanced life support - - the services that paramedics, but not first responders or EMTs, can provide -- other than numbers that show the vast majority of the fire department's calls are for medical services rather than fires.
In August, the department responded to 1,661 calls, only 54 of them related to fires. About 80 percent of the August calls required some type of medical services. AMR last year responded to 13,135, calls but the ambulance company's records don't reflect how many of those calls resulted in performance of advanced life support services.
In short, the fire department is suggesting it provide a service without a demonstrated need, while incurring costs for which there is no revenue offset. Also, the department hasn't addressed the cost of providing the 1,500 hours of training for additional paramedics, which should include overtime pay for firefighters filling in for those in training.
If demands on
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