Paid vs Volley or Volley vs Patient?

[Arctickat]

I thought that was Mark Twain?

Nice to see ya again bud.

[tniuqs]

I thought that was Mark Twain?

Nice to see ya again bud.

Hmmm ... I thought Mark Twain was a redneck hick ?

I could be wrong or perhaps or a rare event "stand corrected" .. no matter, I believe I made my point based on Historical EMT City files.

[Arctickat]

• Mark Twain: on two occasions the writer was incorrectly feared dead. Though only the second case counts as a premature obituary, the first is often erroneously cited as the most famous case:

1. In 1897 a journalist was sent to inquire after Twain's health, thinking he was near to death; in fact it was his cousin who was very ill. Though (contrary to popular belief) no obituary was published, Twain recounted the event in the New York Journal of 2 June 1897, including his famous words "The report of my death was an exaggeration" (which is usually misquoted, e.g. as "The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated", or "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated").^[194][195]
2. On 4 May 1907, when people lost track of a yacht he was traveling on, the New York Times published an article saying he might have been lost at sea.^[196] In fact, the yacht had been held up by fog, and Twain had disembarked. Twain read the article, and cleared up the story by writing a humorous account in the New York Times the following day.^[197]

Twain died in 1910.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_premature_obituaries

Just sayin'

[Just Plain Ruff]

"The internet is getting more and more unreliable in the quotes that are attributed to me" Abraham Lincoln

[DwayneEMTP]

Man, it is good to see some of our psycho old timers coming back! Really cool...

As to the finances...I remember Rob/Dust Devil presenting an pretty compelling argument that any area that has a professional trash service can't cry 'poverty' when discussing EMS...I can't find it now though...it was a few days ago, so maybe it was lost in the transition..

[Just Plain Ruff]

My taxes on my personal property(cars and other high value property like boats and motorcycles) had EMS/Fire included in my yearly tax assessment as well as the school disctrict levy among other fees. I cannot remember the amount but it wasn't really a lot of money. I want to say it was about 23.49 per year for my house valued at about 139K and my total personal property taxes ran me about 450.00

That's a pittance. That's the amount that I paid to have have year round professional fire/EMS coverage to my house which I used 3 times in the 15 years I owned the house. I didn't miss that money, it was paid every year.

To say that you cannot have professional paid fire/ems service is bull crap.

[Lauri]

The blog that started this has been pulled down. But here's my two cents on the paid vs. volunteer debate.... worth about a penny. :-) Whether we are paid, or volunteers, is moot. We are all, and should all be PROFESSIONALS. period. Everyone has to have the same training and meet the same standard of care whether paid or volunteer service. That said, i am on a volunteer service, we are paid for our time spent on a run, but not oncall time. We have 3 EMTS who have kept our service responding 24/7/365 for over a year, it will be next year before we have more EMTs, unless someone already certified moves to town, and then we three really won't have a break till they are comfortable. . our average response time is 2 minutes, even at 3am. :-)

[Lauri]

Setting aside economics for a moment I want to ask why volunteer?

Please don't say, "Because I want to give back to my community". You can do that picking up trash, serving meals at the soup kitchen, putting time in with Meals on Wheels, be a Big Brother/Big Sister volunteer and more.

Why do people so insist on volunteer EMS?

MIke, I know our service is volunteer because we are a small, rural community, and don't have enough calls/year, roughly 200, to justify the cost of paying fulll time EMTS when we can go weeks without a call (I hope I didn't anger the EMS Gods by saying that)

[ERDoc]

It has been reposted with some changes here:

www.resqrev.blogspot.com

Welcome to the City, Lauri. Yes, we all have to meet the same requirements to become certified but how do you assure that everyone maintains their skills? How does a volley who runs 1-2 calls a month really stay competent? Granted, at the EMT level it is not as much of a big deal as it is at the ALS level (EMT-CC in NYS where this blog is from). Having been on the receiving end in both a volley and a paid system, I can tell you that there is an obvious discrepancy.

[triemal04]

our average response time is 2 minutes, even at 3am. :-)

But...what does that mean? Part of the problem with volunteer systems is the "standards" they hold to are often low, and not based on real things.

Does that mean 2 minutes to reach the location of the call?

2 minutes for someone to be "enroute?"

Is that enroute from home?

From a station?

Enroute to the station?

Is that enroute in a department vehicle with all appropriate equipment?

Enroute in a transport capable unit (if that is a service you provide)?

Is that an actual EMT that is enroute, or just a volunteer?

Part of the problem right there...