Live saving drugs pulled from fire truck in Naples, Florida

[defib_wizard]

Fire Bureau - City of Naples, Florida

The Fire Bureau, under Chief Fire Officer Jim McEvoy, is a combination of Fire Operations Division and Fire Prevention Division. Fire Operations Division is primarily responsible for fire suppression and response to medical emergencies. Operations also responds to incidents involving technical rescue operations, hazardous material incidents, and public service requests. Fire Operations responded to 4648 incidents during 2005.Fire Prevention Division is primarily responsible for conducting fire and life safety inspections and delivering quality public education programs. The Fire Bureau consists of (37) Firefighters, (12) Lieutenants, (5) Battalion Chiefs, (1) Chief Fire Officer, (1) Administrative Assistant, (4) Fire Inspectors, (1) Prevention Specialist and (3) Fire Stations.

:shock:

4600+ calls in 2005 probably that many or more last year and not one time did they use an als medication!

Fire depts like to state that they can deliver faster care than ambulance medics.

What do they do? wait for the ambulance to show up to do this.

I'm sorry dustdevil that they are now doing the refresher. If the news article is telling the truth they are lucky thats all the md did. In my opinion they should have their certifications revoked. Not giving a medication when it is indicated is almost as bad as giving the wrong one.

I know what would happen if my wife was having a low blood sugar or an MI and the ALS engine showed up and didn't give her D50,or

ntg, aspirin and morphine. I guarantee the result would involve lawyers.

Just my 2 cents!

[CBEMT]

“To arm them with a bunch of drugs that they won’t ever have the chance to use and to spend the enormous amount of time to teach them how to use those drugs is a waste of the entire system’s energies and efforts,” Tober said. “They haven’t ever used one of those drugs in the whole year that they’ve had them. Not once.”

With that low of an acuity they should be refreshing all their skills every year.

[reaper]

Or simply ask them why they need ALS engines, if they are never used for ALS??

[Doczilla]

Did I say there was anything wrong with it? No, I did not.

What I said was, a medical director would never be allowed to run this kind of test in my area, because the service chief would replace the MD with one who wouldn't.

Agreed. It's very easy to find an MD with little understanding of the field to simply sign the paperwork once a year and let the service run itself however the chief sees fit.

'zilla

[VentMedic]

Or simply ask them why they need ALS engines, if they are never used for ALS??

But reaper, you know this is the Florida way :roll: or at least in the southern part where the tax base can afford it. We must have ALS engines and ladder trucks with an all Paramedic crew or the medic mills that have popped up on every corner like Quick Marts would not be doing so well. And thank good they are there for these poor FFs or wannabe FFs that only have a few months to get the patch to satisfy the fire chiefs. Most have not explored what education a medical professional can get in a regular college because they don't understand being a Paramedic has anything to do with medicine.

I was at least glad Florida did have some professional EMS services, either private or public, like Lee County and Collier County EMS.

If you read comments on other forums or the comments from people at the end of the last newspaper article, people are asking why Collier County EMS employees didn't take the test also. "It's not fair". Few understand what it is like to have a medical director like Dr. Tober who "certifies" his paramedics. As Doczilla stated, there are medical directors who are too willing to just sign whatever paperwork in front of them and let the chiefs run the show. I believe Dr. Tober's Collier County EMS Paramedics (non-fire) have had to prove themselves with much more by other ways than with just a 25 question test. Not filling out the paperwork for a call is not acceptable for him either as he made mention in the article. Yet, the chief is allowed to make excuses for the Fire Medics.

If they used no meds for a year, they probably have not done an IV or intubated during that time either. With the many Paramedics that show up to one scene, they may not have done an assessment either which would better explain the lack of documentation other than not having the "right computer program".

[reaper]

Yes, I was hoping that maybe some smart citizens would ask this very question!! :shock:

Maybe they would start to ask where all their tax money is going. They might wake up an see how much of it is being wasted on these endeavors!!!

[Richard B the EMT]

No wonder Ponce De Leon didn't find the Fountain of Youth. It was in Naples.

You must have missed the obituary. Ponce DeLeon died last week, while still seeking it!

[Dustdevil]

I see a big decline in pt care in Collier County coming ahead.

Ya know, I thought the same thing two pages ago. But now it has become horribly obvious that the decline took place a long time ago. It can't get any worse. In fact, by decertifying the firemonkeys, it can only get better.

[CBEMT]

Agreed. It's very easy to find an MD with little understanding of the field to simply sign the paperwork once a year and let the service run itself however the chief sees fit.

'zilla

Hell, both of my medical directors are PCPs. I doubt either one of them could tell a backboard from an AED.