Fire / ems mergers that dont work

[hawaiianmedic]

Hello EMT City personel this my first post to the forum.. glad to meet all of you... my question to all is I am a paramedic for 13 years in Hawaii on the island Oahu, we are a third service in which the County runs EMS and Fire is seperate. There is plans to I would say to hostially take us over. I have read many of the old posts of how it could work or how it doesn't work. If any one could give me places or websites where i could find actual data about how it went wrong or how its not working, as well as data that it did work.. As for myself I am a medic to the bone, love what I do and is very good at it. I really dont want to see us get taken over but I what some feedback from all the EMS community to see what is the pro and cons.

Hawaiian medic

[NYCEMS9115]

FD and EMS mergers are inevitable in Cities... I can come up with dozens of reasons why it was bad that FDNY took over NYC EMS but I can come up with dozens of reasons why it was a good idea... Nothing you can do but just stay on your board and ride that wave. It's up to you whether your going to wipeout.... Mahalo (I love the Island of Ha-wa-ii; was there [Oahu] in 2003 for my 1yr Wedding Anniversary). They put Spam on everything; I love Spam...

[paramedicmike]

This will take some digging but if you research stories in the local newspapers to San Francisco and Lexington, KY you should find several stories about how the merger of fire and EMS turned out to be a catastrophic failure. The stories I read go back several years but should be archived and available.

If you search through this website, too, you'll find plenty of discussion on the topic as well.

Good luck.

[usalsfyre]

Kansas City is headed rapidly towards the "catastrophic failure" category as well.

[croaker260]

Kansas City is headed rapidly towards the "catastrophic failure" category as well.

Lets not forget DC fire and Detroit Fire as examples of EMS done horribly wrong by the Fire Service.

[Bieber]

Kansas City is headed rapidly towards the "catastrophic failure" category as well.

Pretty much, yeah. That's the word anyway.

[hatelilpeepees]

You need to find out who is pushing for this behind the scenes; is it politicians who believe they will save money by combining departments, or is the Fire Department pushing for it so they can save their jobs ? The first thing you should do is suggest that EMS should take over the Fire Department, since the majority of calls of the new department will be EMS calls. You can also counter the money question by showing that you would take the traditional 24/48 hour schedule that the Fire Department is probably on, and put them on 12-hour shifts, and shut down some apparatus during the midnight to 8am hours when few calls occur. Instead of paying people to sleep, you can pay less to have them on call. All municipalities are looking to save money, and labor cost is usually 50-70% of any public safety budget. Someone in your public safety departments are about to lose their job, do what you can to make sure it isnt you.

[hawaiianmedic]

FD and EMS mergers are inevitable in Cities... I can come up with dozens of reasons why it was bad that FDNY took over NYC EMS but I can come up with dozens of reasons why it was a good idea... Nothing you can do but just stay on your board and ride that wave. It's up to you whether your going to wipeout.... Mahalo (I love the Island of Ha-wa-ii; was there [Oahu] in 2003 for my 1yr Wedding Anniversary). They put Spam on everything; I love Spam...

Thanks for the comment I am glad you had such a good time here. We love spam here let me tell you....

Thanks to all for your comments and information

Aloha

hawaiian medic

[p3medic]

Thanks for the comment I am glad you had such a good time here. We love spam here let me tell you....

Thanks to all for your comments and information

Aloha

hawaiian medic

Its the trend everywhere, less fires and tighter budgets, IAFF tell their members its EMS or die. Its too bad, I spent a few year out at Schofield and recall the City and County EMS guys and gals were top notch, I almost stayed to go to P school in Honolulu, but ended up back east. Good luck

[Just Plain Ruff]

Kansas City is headed rapidly towards the "catastrophic failure" category as well.

I thnk that they are nearly there. Was talking to a fire fighter medic and he said that just as he thought, the old fat fire fighters who want nothing more to do with EMS are bitching and moaning about having to pull a shift on the ambulance.

The ambulance is rapidly becoming the mode of punishment if you piss your captain off on a given day.

Response times SUCK donkey balls, morale among the long time fire fighters is poor because they have to drive the ambulance on some shifts.

The medics are working their asses off to cover open shifts and some days there are ambulances that are not staffed or there are fire trucks that go without a crew member.

My friend told me that what could have been a great system has turned out to be a limp dick system where the old guard union members are dictating what happens on a day to day basis.

On a totally different note - I called 911 the other day to come get my father because he was really sick. The two crew members arrived and were totally professional. They took care of him quite well, and I can't say I was unhappy in any measure.

Response time was less than 7 minutes, scene time was less than 10 minutes and drive time to the hospital was less than 10 minutes.

He was suffering from Erlichiosis and to be all honest, I called EMS to get him in to a room in the ER due to his inability to sit in a chair.

KCFD - count me as a pleased customer.