Redundant Fire and EMS response in Florida

[AnthonyM83]

Welcome to Los Angeles County...you get the triple threat...unless it's a station house with an engine and a ladder truck...then it's x4

[VentMedic]

unless your sole aim is funding a fire department.

It can be nice to support all the toys of the FD. That is, until you get your property tax bill. Of course if your house catches fire, the ALS engine will probably be on an EMS call.

[thatoneguy]

It can be nice to support all the toys of the FD. That is, until you get your property tax bill. Of course if your house catches fire, the ALS engine will probably be on an EMS call.

And if your wife/husband is having "the big one" the 4 closest ambulances will probably be on a fire call

Or the ambulance will hurry through your "time wasting" medical call because their dispatcher just sent the rest of their station to the structure fire 3 streets over

[Just Plain Ruff]

this is exactly what happens when the government gets involved with anything. Throw money at the issue and you get all this help on scene. Take some of the money away and you get a single ambulance which would suffice for 90% of all calls that we run on a daily basis.

If the taxpayers knew this was happening and how much it was costing what do we think they would say??? "Wow, we get all this response, we must be getting our money's worth"?

I'm all for providing competent and quality EMS services but with a group of 6-10 people on scene this seems to be a waste of resources.

I truly believe it comes down to the bottom line of cash or taxes. If you have a taxpayer supported service then they are going to shoot for the moon in what they can charge and provide rather than do some real evaluation of things and actually be realistic.

[VentMedic]

If the taxpayers knew this was happening and how much it was costing what do we think they would say??? "Wow, we get all this response, we must be getting our money's worth"?

This was all mentioned in the Amendment 1 Tax Reform election last year. The taxpayers cast their ballots and spoke out against the big spending when the budgets with problem areas of spending were made public. The commercials used by those in favor of the amendment were designed to scare the senior population into thinking there would be no FD or ambulance ever again coming to save them. They didn't expect an educated voter turnout. Luckily, most of those seniors were retired business people who could read a balance sheet and saw through the bs. I also remember some heated discussions on the forums about this topic. The unions were hitting for the emotional response.

Of course, the only county in South Florida that is really counting its nickels is Monroe. But they've got their disproportionate pork that is making parts of the county EMS struggle while money is diverted to "special projects" within the Sheriff's department and EMS.

Some of the other rural counties that do not have the tax base as St. Pete or Boca Raton are struggling but some of it is perception because they are the have nots being compared with the haves which are counties with services like the one in the article. Finding quality ambulance services to take an area's contract is also an issue in some counties. Of course, when the ambulance service is doing just fine, the FD wants it.

[Just Plain Ruff]

This was all mentioned in the Amendment 1 Tax Reform election last year. The taxpayers cast their ballots and spoke out against the big spending when the budgets with problem areas of spending were made public. The commercials used by those in favor of the amendment were designed to scare the senior population into thinking there would be no FD or ambulance ever again coming to save them. They didn't expect an educated voter turnout. Luckily, most of those seniors were retired business people who could read a balance sheet and saw through the bs. I also remember some heated discussions on the forums about this topic. The unions were hitting for the emotional response.

Of course, the only county in South Florida that is really counting its nickels is Monroe. But they've got their disproportionate pork that is making parts of the county EMS struggle while money is diverted to "special projects" within the Sheriff's department and EMS.

Some of the other rural counties that do not have the tax base as St. Pete or Boca Raton are struggling but some of it is perception because they are the have nots being compared with the haves which are counties with services like the one in the article. Finding quality ambulance services to take an area's contract is also an issue in some counties. Of course, when the ambulance service is doing just fine, the FD wants it.

Vent you are so correct, I spent the last year and a half in jacksonville and I remember those commercials. How if this property tax bill or whatever the bill was passed that they would have to shut down fire stations and put their poor firefighters out of work. The sheriff's department was no better in Jax.

The initiative passed and I have yet to see any mention of any fire station or ambulance being sidelined. As a matter of fact I talked to a Captain for JAX Fire and rescue and he said that they were not only expanding their department but they are adding about 8-10 new ambulances (proposed) to cover the burden. I asked him about the commercials that were run and he said that he never supported those because he knew they were bullshit

[EMS179]

Orange County did this for years. However, IAFF local 2057 (OC) just announced that they are dropping Rural/Metro as their "contract company" meaning now all responses will be held to OC units only, a rescue and a piece of apparatus for medical calls, and so on as appropriate. Used to be for virtually every call R/M would transport and OC would treat O/S.

[JakeEMTP]

Maybe if the FL fire departments responded to, I don't know, say fires and extraction calls, and EMS responded to umm, lets say medical calls, you wouldn't have to deal with this:

http://www.naplesdailynews.com/news/2008/a...cticing-emt-pa/

I'm hoping this is just an isolated incident, but who knows. Maybe people have been doing this for sometime. I mean, all it took for this particular hosemonkey to get his paygrade raised was a phone call to his Chief saying " I passed ". I say, background and licensure checks for all fire/medics! :wink:

[EMS179]

Fire/EMS combination responses to medical calls has its advantages, especially in urban settings. From experience alone, say you have a 400 LB cardiac arrest on the 5th story of a filing cabinet in on July 4th in Orlando. The apt. bldg doest have central AC and the pt doesnt have a wall unit. There are 2 ways down, elevator that you have to share with 15 other stories worth of people that cant fit more than a stretcher with the back dropped, "head section" of the stretcher at a 90deg. angle, (explain how that is gonna work when you are trying to vent and push) and maybe 2 medics depending on their size, the pt. size and equipment , or a stairwell. You respond as a call for an "unknown" with an ambulance only w/ 2 medics, you arrive to find the above situation. Clo sest fire unit is 14 min. away due to a MVA in your local. What do you do? Stay and play for an excess of 15 minutes with a workable code? Or try to get this guy out yourself? Or, the second alternative, use the dual response system, because, you are fire/medics and work in the same building as 3 pieces of fire apparatus. Use the truck co. w/ 5 firefighters on it to your advantage. now you have at least 1 extra MEDIC on the truck due to regulations that every truck is an ALS truck and 4 EMTs. Which scenario do you like better? This is an every day occurrence down there. There are hundred of scenarios that everyone can post on here and we can argue who is right for days. Or, we can stop being monday night QBs and let the people who have worked in the area for 20 years and who develop the systems and who have to work in the conditions presented to them every day determine what works for them and their department. Just my .02.

[Dustdevil]

So, because I might encounter one 400 pound patient twice a year, we should send a fire truck to every ambulance run?