Why do citizens hate / like your service

[boeingb13]

Im posing a simple question that will have several personal views. Here we go.

This is for everyone, city, rural, private 911 ambulance, volunteer, city and county.

In these times we are in where many fire/rescue, and ems only services are having to deal with many shortfalls financially, why is it some communities are 100% behind their providers while others are only looking at the bottom line as far as possible tax increases to maintain the current level of care.

There are many companies / departments looking at station closures, and layoffs. Aside from great patient care what do you all think services / departments should be doing to be out in the public letting them know you are valuable. Because as you and I know "I'm never going to need you so why should I pay for you to sit around" and then something happens and they are your biggest supporter. May of you ma work in stations like mine that are fairly busy, the thing is though even with a good call volume how many of them are frequent patients, I say this because with the frequents your not actually seeing that many new people.

So what should emt's paramedics and firefighters be doing to raise awareness in the areas where there is a lack of support in the financial crisis the ems service is experiencing?

I welcome any ideas, such as every 3rd Saturday baby seat installation or everyday at your station, or monthly passing out W.H.A.L.E. stickers, the We have a little emergency stickers for first responders to know there is usually a child in the vehicle.

[joesph]

What do they think of us. You pretty well hit it right on the head. Till there up to there ass in alligators some see us the bastard child (we are a all risk agency). But there is a bright side we have a auxiliary that raises 30% of our revenue. We sponsor the local food bank at battalion one, we are the polling place for our area. We have a community hall and we are a emergency shelter.

We do a lot of safety and prevention with our schools and provide mutual aid to state, federal and local agency's. So many of our small community take alot of pride in there Fire/EMS Department. Now for the hard part getting them to volunteer. Wow drop that one in a room and you will be standing alone like you ripped some nasty gas. I fear that the days of volunteerism is on the wane with no improvement in site. Will they support a paid or partially paid agency in time I think so. I have a vision of our ambulance going to a no charge status with the funds coming from tax roles. And believe it or not I wasn't stoned when I came up with that one. People moving here are coming from areas of the country were if you pick up the phone and dial 911 help is there in five minutes or less. I think they will be willing to pay for that her in time. The hard part is Montana's have authority issues and it takes a bit to change there minds. With our folks if you ask them for a donation they will reach in there pocket very deeply but ask to raise taxes and you better be ready to fight your way to the door cause they'll will lynch you.

[HERBIE1]

Depends heavily on which group you pose that question to.

City managers look at the bottom line. Does it generate money for us? Does it make the voters happy and gets us reelected?

Tax paying citizens generally support EMS but are probably ambivalent and/or ignorant about the details of how their service operates until they need it. They certainly do not know about the problems the system may have in providing EMS care.

Frequent flyers simply look at it as a taxi to bail them out of their latest self induced tragedy.

Abusers- those who do NOT need an ambulance, much less an ER visit- look at it simply as another service they "deserve"- regardless of it's original intent.

Fire service looks at it as a necessary evil/red-headed step child which generates revenue for them and saves FF jobs.

[Chief1C]

Rural. Very.. Rural. I'd say 70/30.. Higher on the appreciate. Lower on the anger. They don't have to pay taxes for EMS, nobody official would grant that.. I'd get similar results, hitting myself on the head with a brick. They do tax for the fire department; and the phone prefixes that have 911 service, have to pay for that as well. Biggest complaint, time getting from the station to the scene.. Sometimes it can be as far as 25 miles from the station.. Hey, we didn't force them to move to the middle of nowhere, you take your like into your own hands when you choose to live an hour from the nearest hospital anyway. We try very hard to provide a high quality, courteous, respectful, competent service; meeting the patients medical needs, as well as comforting them as best as possible. It's always been one of the traits of the service, even back into the early days, to have well mannered crew members. The locals seem to be very accepting of them, many people find a calm, competent provider more comforting, and if the patient can remain calm, IMO, they have a better outcome. The most difficult thing to do, is care for people who I've known all my life; most of the patients, no matter the situation, I know in some way. It can be very taxing on a person over time. But most of them seem to find comfort, in seeing someone they know show up. I've received and kept a lot of cards and notes from people I've transported over the years. Never had a complaint about me personally.

[Richard B the EMT]

As already known, I am as municipal as they come, in a city of 8 million residents and about an additional 2 million transients each 24 hours. FDNY EMS does about one point three million calls a year.

YET...

With a few units and crews now on a pilot program of 12 hour tours, the majority working 3 eight hour tours a day, and speaking of roughly 250 to 300 actual FDNY EMS ambulances, the city just cut back some 30 odd "tours". The rest are supposed to pick up the slack.

Saturday evening, I visited a station where the 4 BLS 1600-0000 tour ambulances were either with crews already on overtime, or about to go on overtime for the 0000 to 0800 tour. The one person who was supposed to be on regular, non overtime, for that 0000-0800 tour banged in sick, and the poor lieutenant was fighting with the borough command chief as to why the station was unable to secure a crew for that one ambulance.

This is probably going on, on a citywide basis.

My fire guys are facing the closure of 17 apparatus citywide, either as overnight closures from 1800 to 0600, or outright full closures. Nobody is losing jobs, the fire folks are supposed to be "redeployed".

The most recent class from the NYPD academy is not going to get as much pay or benefits as the last class, and a class supposed to start in the near future has been canceled.

As for budget cutbacks in other agencies, my girlfriend, "Lady J" stands to lose her job in the NYC Department of Education.

The New York State Senate is having battles between the Democrats and Republicans, as to who is in charge of the place, and hasn't conducted any real business for the last 2 weeks, even while being ordered back to work by Governor Patterson.

Well, folks, as long as I still am getting a paycheck, when I am due in, I follow the Jackson 5's song, and "I'll Be There". (Due to injuries, I am at a status that won't allow me overtime, while I "fly a desk" at headquarters)

BTW, the 3 8 hour tour ambulances run 2 person crews with one scheduled off per tour, each tour. It's a crazy sked, where each works 8 hours (not putting O/T into this equation), 5 days, off for 2, works another 5 days, and then off for 3 days. You work one week 2 days with one partner and 3 with the other, and the next week, work 3 days with the first and 2 with the second. When you're off, your partners work with each other. Each ambulance, both BLS and ALS, has 9 personnel assigned.

[boeingb13]

I follow the FDNY and DCFD closely for family reasons, I have family on them, and it pisses me off hearing of the station closures up there.