Possibly the most screwed up EMS system in the country...

[tinman694]

Makes me feel better about us folks here down south....

And they thought WE were sdrawkcad!!!

Much to Dusts chagrin--we have 'paid per call' ALS which works much better than what they have up there...

Not perfect, but it does get er' done...

[SSG G-man]

Once again the volunteer and basic bashing!! My station is about 2basics to 1 EMT-P. So, IF the EMT-P does not come for a call that's okay, 'cause hes a cool EMT-P. But if a basic is not there, its because he is waiting for a cooler call. I understand!!

I need to quit this site. Tired of searching through the land fill of BS for the nugget knowledge I came here hoping to find!

Sarge. Out.... for a sabbatical!!

[Dustdevil]

Yes, Sarge... sticking your head in the sand should cure everything. Ignore it, and it will all go away. :roll:

Nobody excused medics who pick and choose their runs. They are guilty too. They simply aren't part of the discussion since we were talking about a specific, all-basic, volunteer system.

[EMT857]

But Springsteen still sucks. :wink:

:scratch: I dont agree with that, but on topic...

as a member (currently on school leave) of my volutneer squad in central jersey not too far from the shore this is not true of all towns, my town happens to cover more mutual aid calls over 24 hours on somedays than actually getting any of our own. And some of these neighboring towns are larger than us. :shock: On the contrary one of the largest towns in the county has one of the best organized volunteer systems in the country fire and ems, with an extremely high call volume for a volunteer system. Some of the other areas though you are absolutely right, I remember a day I was with my buddy after class and heard a call go out on his scanner for a neighboring town and it took 20 minutes (my drive home) till they finally hit out one of the squads in my town for mutual aid. Something definitely needs to be done about problems like that. The issues do vary from town to town, and communications in some towns, especially mine, suck beyond belief.

[Asysin2leads]

You're missing the point though, completely. The town could have the most incredible super wonderful volunteer Fire/EMS response squad in the nation, but if you have the funding and tax base for it, and you're not getting the appropriate care to the appropriate call in a timely manner, your EMS system is broken. If the town is that large, politics aside, its really not excusable in this day and age to not have a paid EMS response with ALS capabilites providing service to the area. See, the thing is, I view EMS as an extension of the hospital, with some public safety aspects thrown in. At one of my local hospitals, as in many places, we have volunteers in the ER. But if I were to suggest we open up an ER staffed primarily by volunteers with the nurses scattered about the city who we call in when we need them, they would escort me to a nice quiet area of the psych ward. But somehow, in that neck of the woods, in the prehospital setting, it makes sense to someone.

[strippel]

I grew up in North Jersey. Back in the day, I thought that system rocked. And for the most part, back then it did. There were lots of BLS volunteer ambulances, all with lots of active people, and pristine expensive ambulances. And they responded to calls. ALS units responded from the hospitals, and all had decent response times, and people lived. I volunteered, and had fun.

And then I started thinking about it. Why were there a bunch cops on every EMS call? Why did 2 vehicles show up with as many as 7 people on them? Soon, the ALS chase unit would start arriving before the ambulance. And then.....Humm.....

Then I moved to PA (yes, I know we have our own set of problems). We had still had volunteer services, but they were always staffed, and got out in the allowed time. There were even volunteer medic units. It didn't take long to realize that call volumes were increasing dramatically. BLS units became paid, ALS chase trucks became transporting MICUs. Services realized that they needed to keep up, go ALS, and do transports. Either that, or they died a very painful death. many have. Now, with (almost) no government money, Non-profit ALS transporting services are all over PA. They have merged, been dissolved, and gone through metamorphosis. My service is fully paid, non-profit with volunteers, doing over 22,000 calls last year, making money, getting raises, providing decent benefits, and buying new vehicles and equipment.

I recently moved my parents from Northern NJ, to here in PA. They were paying more taxes in one month than I do in a year. What (as far as emergency services) did that get them? A police department that puts out 4-6 officers each shift for a 2 mile square town of 8000 people, 1 paid "firefighter" who helps with inspections, and maintains 5 apparatus, a volunteer ambulance that has 2 huge stations, and 5 brand new $150,000 ambulances that don't get out (but do not charge when they do), and hospital based ALS chase that takes 15-25 minutes to arrive, and charges well over $1200 to show up.

[ERDoc]

The system here on Long Island is pretty bad too, though we do have ALS, but for the most part it is weekend warrior ALS. Pretty sad considering we are one of the largest volley systems in the country (both FD and EMS). Here is a link to a recent expose on the Fire and EMS service from one of the local papers. Be sure the check out the Taj Mahals that are being built to house the equipment.

http://www.newsday.com/news/specials/nyf-i...0,3691882.story

[pmedic623]

Quite an education on some east coast EMS. I don't think I'll complain very hard about our systems here!

[Asysin2leads]

I'm still at a toss up which is worse, Long Island or New Jersey. I was going to write a book, 1001 Long Island Volley jokes, but I had too many. The worse part is they won't stay patching up the Gottis and Joey Buttafuoco out in Suffolk and Nassau County, but feel the need to come into my city so they can have some neato FDNY stuff. Okay, it's settled, Long Island is worse.