Say Goodbye to Cleveland EMS

[Dustdevil]

:roll:

http://blog.cleveland.com/plaindealer/2008..._trial_gat.html

Posted by Mark Puente May 19, 2008 09:02AM

Chris Stephens/The Plain Dealer

Lt. Ken Latkovic, advanced life support paramedic

with Engine 36, rides to a call in the engine.

Driving is Firefighter Rich Bryant.

Hundreds of lives could be saved in Cleveland each year if the Fire Department expands a trial program to save critically ill patients, city officials say.

Six weeks ago, the Fire Department assigned an advanced paramedic/firefighter to Engine 36 in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood at East 131st Street and Bartlett Avenue. The area has a high volume of serious medical calls.

Engine 36 now has the capability to administer advanced life support to sick or injured patients, including starting intravenous fluids, opening airways and dispensing life-saving drugs.

The pumper truck's response time is usually less than four minutes - a vital time for heart-attack patients, officials say. The truck will not transport patients to the hospital; instead, the paramedic will administer care and the patient will be taken to the hospital by the Emergency Medical Service.

All firetrucks answer medical-emergency calls and each firefighter can administer basic first-aid, including CPR, but have to wait for EMS for life-saving measures.

The goal of the six-month trial program is to save lives. City officials are pleased so far with the results.

"The initial feedback is encouraging," Safety Director Martin Flask said. "It's an opportunity for us to expand first-responder care."

The Columbus Fire Department has paramedics assigned to each of its 34 pumpers. Half of Cincinnati's 27 pumpers have paramedics. A paramedic certification requires more than 2,000 hours of medical training, while a firefighter requires about 120 hours.

Cleveland Councilman Kevin Conwell, who chairs City Council's Public Safety Committee, supports expanding the program citywide to combat fatal heart attacks. The city had 200 last year.

"The whole focus needs to be on saving lives," he said.

Cleveland Fire Department paramedic program potentially life-saving

Engine 36 responded to 157 medical runs in the first four weeks and beat EMS to the scene 84 times. The unit assisted or started advanced care on 66 of those patients.

Lt. Ken Latkovic, a paramedic/firefighter who volunteered for the program, said the unit saved two lives, including a 103-year-old woman who needed resuscitation.

EMS operates between 16 and 22 ambulances each day and has a response time of about seven minutes and 20 seconds.

The Fire Department operates four rescue squads.

Historically, there has been a rivalry between the department and EMS, with occasional talk of merging the two services.

Some EMS employees may feel threatened by the program, Flask said, but it's not an attempt to undermine their work.

In fact, EMS Commissioner Ed Eckart recommended the city implement the program, along with Fire Chief Paul Stubbs. Stubbs and Eckart each said they would like to see the program expanded after six months.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

mpuente@plaind.com, 216-999-4141

[AZCEP]

If the city council truly cared about saving "heart attack victims" they would push for better public recognition and CPR classes. Take those paramedics off the first response engines, and have them educate the public they ascribe to being so concerned for.

Or better yet, instead of having an antagonistic relationship with the EMS provider why not give them the funding they need to better cover the area?

[CBEMT]

I forget where, but another Cleveland news outlet had this story, I left my comment there. :wink:

[p3medic]

Interesting. Send a $250,000 piece of apparatus, with 4 top paid firefighters to a medical to do the job of 2 medics in a $100,000 abulance. Good plan. :roll:

[Mateo_1387]

WOW :shock:

They saved the life of a 103 year old person, great job guys, did you think maybe it was time for the person to die? Oh, but it is about saving lives. Why not put an ambulance at that location to answer all those "serious medical calls" in that area? And all this comes in light of them possibly refusing transport in the near future.....

[Asysin2leads]

This is the same Cleveland EMS that when the news media did a story about BS calls, the director stated "Well, we're really a social work service and these calls need to be done." Apparently by a paramedic on a fire engine. Its all about the green, folks.

[Urbanmedic461]

If I make it to 103 y/o and any dumb f**k resuscitates me they'll be in need of resuscitation themselves.

[Upton4785]

Maybe I don't have a full understanding of how the system works, as I have had no experience with them, but if saving money is the name of the game, wouldn't it be easier to just send 1 or 2 ambulances with fully trained crews rather than 1 or 2 ambulances, two firetrucks, and three police cars all with multiple crewmembers on each, whenever Gertrude thinks she's having an MI? The money saved could go into more ambulances/crews and thus quicker response times. Call me crazy, but unless the building's on fire, aren't the monkeys just going to be standing there with their thumbs in their behinds waiting for EMS anyway?

I'm probably just stating the obvious, though.

[Just Plain Ruff]

but remember the more calls that a fire department runs the more money they can ask for come budget time.

We ran X number of calls in the past 365 days so we need this amount of money.

The more trucks that go on a call will exponentially increase that number.

I'm all for sending fire trucks on calls that are considered life threat's like shortness of breath, chest pain, long falls and rescue types but to send a pumper on a call that is for a injured foot or a head ache is just stupid and puts the public at risk. When you run emergency for a hurt foot it's just silly.

Sort of sending a fire truck to a trash can fire with it's lights and sirens. That's another pointless thing.

[CBEMT]

I wonder how this fits into the mix.....

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/16343717/detail.html