The AHA association estimates that 40,000 more lives could be saved annually in the U.S. alone if (AED) defibrillators were more widely available thereby reaching victims of Sudden Cardiac Arrest.
You, as the 911 caller, are a vital link within the EMS system. The information you provide the dispatch operator helps EMS help you. The following lists the guidelines for communicating the 911 call: Try to remain calm emotions can deter effective communications.
Speak slowly, deliberately. Respond to all questions presented by the dispatch operator. Give a brief, concise description of the emergency, including: the nature of the illness, for example, chest pain with difficult breathing; the mechanism causing the injury, for example, a fall from a 6-foot ladder; the number of patients involved and the types of treatment being rendered by bystanders or first responders.
Know the complete residential or business address, including street number and community, especially if you are calling from a cellular phone. Assist emergency response to the address by ensuring the house number is visible from the street and turning on porch lights. You might send a bystander to meet the ambulance. Do not hang up until directed by the dispatch operator.
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Emergency Medical Workers have an occupational fatality rate of 9.6 per 100,000 workers per year in transportation-related incidents, compared with 6.3 for police, 4.5 for fire fighters and 2 for average citizens.
EMS PERSONNEL HAVE HIGHER FATALITY THAN POLICE FIRE
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ON SEPT 11, 2001 INSTEAD AMERICA HAS GROWN STRONGER, & BIN LADEN HAS SHOWN HIS YELLOW STREAK AND CONTINUES TO HIDE LIKE THE COWARD HE IS
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Kansas City Fire Chief to become CEO of MAST Ambulance in Takeover
Kansas City Fire Chief Smokey Dyer would also become the chief executive officer of MAST under a memorandum approved Tuesday by the ambulance service’s board. The board made the decision after a closed-door discussion at its monthly meeting.
The Kansas City Council is expected to vote Thursday on Dyer’s appointment. Dyer would be in charge of the Metropolitan Ambulance Services Trust during its transition into city government. The ambulance service is scheduled to be folded into the Fire Department by April 25, 2010.
The board also approved spending up to $60,000 to have one of two consulting firms helping with the transition delve further into the issue of billing. Management Partners Inc. originally was supposed to lead the issue. But Dyer and board members said they were not happy with that firm’s work. MAST will ask the second firm, Emergency Services Consulting International, to amend its original $116,000 assignment to include billing.
Thor acquires ambulance maker SJC Industries
Elkhart, Ind Thor Industries Inc. has acquired SJC Industries, a privately-held manufacturer of ambulances for approximately $20 million cash.
SJC, based in Elkhart, Ind., is believed to be the second-largest manufacturer of ambulances in the U.S., according to a Thor news release. Its brands include McCoy-Miller, Marque and Premiere, which are sold through a nationwide network of dealers.
Under Thor’s new ownership, SJC will continue as an independent operation, in the same manner as Thor’s recreation vehicle and bus companies.
Chuck Drake, president of SJC, and Jim Evans, vice president of finance, will continue in their management roles following the closing. Drake will report to Richard Riegel, Thor’s senior group president.
“The ambulance business is a natural fit with Thor’s bus and RV businesses,” Thor Chairman, CEO and President Peter Orthwein said in a news release. “SJC is an innovator with a strong commitment to customer satisfaction. We believe their quality is the highest in the ambulance industry.”
Jackson Center-based Thor is the world’s largest manufacturer of recreational vehicles and a major builder of commercial buses.
Thor was founded in 1980. It has since grown to include a dozen divisions and has about 5,500 employees. While Thor and Airstream, one of its RV divisions, are based in Ohio, most of the other divisions operate in Northern Indiana and Michigan.
The Metropolitan Ambulance Services Trust logo is gone from most of (MAST) Emergency Vehicles. MAST will be no more as the ambulance service is set to be taken over by the Kansas City Fire Department. The Ambulance logos are being replaced with the letters KCFD, eliminating MAST. and saying hello, to the now city-run ambulances.
At the stroke of midnight April 25, 2010, the Metropolitan Ambulance Services Trust and its approximately 350 employees will officially transform into part of the Kansas City Fire Department.
Beginning with Fire Department-emblazoned ambulances fanning out to fire stations at 7 a.m. Sunday, noticeable changes will occur to the outside and inside of the organization. Leaders said they were confident they could deliver the same or better patient care while saving the city money.
The merger has been more than six months in the planning. The process has gained national attention, with write-ups in trade publications and out-of-state emergency responders observing committee meetings.
Take over is also contentious
MAST has been the city’s ambulance provider since 1979. The firefighters union proposed a consolidation twice without success, but then it went through the third time. Some employees and residents pushed petitions to leave MAST alone, and multiple MAST executives and board members resigned.
Some components of the merger will take years to implement. Others will literally happen overnight. “This is a system that gives the greatest economic efficiency for emergency services and is a model that brings about the greatest effectiveness,” Fire Chief Smokey Dyer said.
On the streets
One of the first changes people will see is where ambulances are — or aren’t. Before, all on-duty ambulances roved the streets, and the closest ambulance was sent to an incoming call. Now ambulances will be assigned to 15 fire stations.
Remaining on-duty ambulances will be deployed based on call volume. But instead of idling outside QuikTrips and grocery stores, they’ll spend downtime at fire stations, a move hoped to improve comfort and safety for ambulance crews. A new city ordinance dictates that ambulance response times must remain just as fast as before. However, the way those times are tallied will be stricter.
MAST previously allowed slow response times to be thrown out of the data if they resulted from circumstances such as an ice storm or a caller giving the wrong address. Response times now will be tallied just like fire trucks’ times, Dyer said, with no such exceptions.
Ambulance and fire dispatchers will stay put for now. But plans call for consolidating them in early 2011 at the former MAST headquarters, 6750 Eastwood Trafficway. Former MAST Memberships, which residents purchased to reduce out-of-pocket ambulance costs, now will be called KCFD Family Memberships. Membership costs are expected to remain unchanged, at least for now.
Cross-training
Eventually, Dyer said, the department won’t be divided into ambulance workers and firefighters. New cadets will graduate from the fire academy qualified for both jobs, with the next class starting May 10 2010. “We have to take raw talent in the door and then teach them the basic skills for all of those missions,” Dyer said.
Unlike the Fire Department, which offers paid training through the academy, MAST ambulance workers previously had to find and undergo outside emergency medical training before applying for their jobs.
Dyer said the new combined training would be good for morale, teamwork and also diversity, because forcing ambulance workers to find and pay for training resulted in mostly white, financially privileged employees.
Current ambulance workers will be able to sign up for specialty training to build awareness on topics such as hazardous materials, fire behavior and building construction.
Leadership
Dyer remains at the top of the newly blended organization’s chain of command. Deputy Chief Paul Berardi, who formerly led the Fire Department’s professional development bureau, will lead the new medical bureau. Other ambulances duties and operations are being distributed throughout the Fire Department. Ambulance workers will report to the deputy chief of the emergency operations bureau, like firefighters.
Before becoming Kansas City fire chief, Dyer led the Lee’s Summit Fire Department, including its ambulance service. He said that Berardi did not have ambulance experience but that he was chosen for his management skills in education and development.
Budget savings
The merger should save money because it eliminates paying two sets of senior managers and two sets of support employees, Dyer said.
No facilities are to be abandoned or built, Dyer said. However, plans for the new Station 39 at 47th Street and Sterling Avenue will be modified to house a static ambulance, he said.
The Fire Department will continue to get revenue from providing ambulance services to small communities and training other area ambulance workers, Dyer said. MAST used to contract with multiple communities outside of Kansas City but most recently has covered only three of those. With the merger, ambulance service is being discontinued to Avondale but will continue to Riverside and the South Platte Fire Protection District.
Diminishing reserves
As operational changes fall into place, at least one major administrative issue has yet to be resolved: How much cash will transfer from MAST to the city? Due to last-minute loose ends, the asset transfer won’t happen until May 1, 2010. But MAST’s reserve fund, envisioned to help bolster pensions for MAST workers with years of previous service, has been shrinking. It is down to about $7 million, acting city manager Troy Schulte said Friday.
Recent moves depleting the fund included roughly $700,000 in severance packages paid to departing MAST executives and $1.6 million in extended liability insurance coverage that MAST board members approved Tuesday. The only City Council members on the board, Cindy Circo and Melba Curls, opposed the purchase as unnecessary because liability will be covered by the city.
Ambulance workers coming from MAST will be able to choose between joining the city’s pension program or a defined contribution plan, Dyer said. Except for the departing executives, nearly all of MAST’s employees — from ambulance drivers to billing specialists — are staying, Dyer said. He said fewer than a handful resigned or retired early because of the merger.
All will be allowed to stay in their current homes unless they move, in which case they must move into Kansas City, where fellow city employees are required to reside.
MAST Ambulance will be no more as Ambulance Service as Kansas City Fire Department Takes Over
05-26-2010 Boston MA, More than 200 Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have been practicing without legitimate certification, having paid certificate mills for fake credentials without taking any medical training, an investigation by Massachusetts public health officials has found.
In some cases, technicians bought the credentials to renew their state certification, but in others, medics used the fake credentials to allow them to begin treating patients for the first time.
The outfits peddling certificates provided them during the past two years to Emergency Medical Technicians, Paramedics, Police Officers, and Firefighters in at least a dozen communities, including Boston, according to two public officials briefed on the investigation.
Some 18 Boston firefighters are among those responding to medical emergencies without legitimate accreditation.
The state Department of Public Health discovered the ruse last year, when some properly certified EMTs complained to state officials that a number of colleagues had not been trained but received certification. The investigation expanded in recent weeks when an ambulance company reported some of its employees had falsified documentation.
The investigation is ongoing and is expected to grow to include more communities, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to speak publicly. In the meantime, the state is forcing the unaccredited technicians and paramedics to undergo training to ensure safe medical care for the public, they said.
State heath officials sent a letter last week to medical training providers statewide, warning them of the consequences of falsifying credentials. The department could refer some of the cases to the attorney general for criminal prosecution.
Source: Boston Globe
By Donovan Slack
The Boston Globe Exposes as many as 200 Fake EMS Licences
06-08-2010 Emergency Medical Services Corporation (AMR) Announced that it has completed its acquisition of Gold Coast Ambulance ServiceClick here
FDNY Dispatcher EMT Jason Green Shot and Killed in Manhattan
07-19-2010 EMT Jason Green who was under investigation for allegedly refusing to help a Pregnant woman Au Bon Pain worker Eutisha Rennix, 25, after she suffered a seizure during Green's break at the coffee shop in Downtown Brooklyn. Rennix died at Long Island College Hospital. She was six months pregnant, and her unborn baby was delivered at the hospital but died. An Autopsy later determined that she had suffered an asthma attack. Green and Jackson both EMTS Dispatchers were suspended without pay for a month from thier jobs.
The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office was still investigating.Green and Jacksons failure to aid the 25 year-old Rennix.
On Sunday July 18, 2010 Green and a friend were attempting to enter a popular nightclub in Manhattan and were refused entry. Moments later a fight broke out between and at least 3 other men when suddenly one of them pulled a gun shooting the 32 year-old Green reportedly in the face. Green was transported to a local hospital were he was declared dead.
On Wednesday July 21, 2010, the FDNY announced Green would be buried with "Full FDNY Honors," a move that is reportedly upsetting many FDNY Medics because of the ongoing investigations regarding the events of Rennix death last year and the events regarding the two medics who were on thier coffee break.
Mosquito
Mosquito
Three Killed as Lifenet Medical Helicopter Crashed in Arizona
Tucson Arizona 07-28-2010-LifeNet has released information that a LifeNet Medical Helicopter, enroute from Marana Arizona to Douglas Arizona crashed early Wednesday afternoon July 28, 2010. The Medical Helicopter fell to the ground and nearly missed striking a house. The Tucson based Helicopter crash Wednesday took place near Glenn and Grant Road, just north of the University of Arizona campus.
According to the media reports, a witness indicated the rotor appeared to seize and causing the LifeNet Helicopter to crash. The Tucson helicopter crash did not cause any injuries on the ground, and the LifeNet Helicopter was not carrying any patients at the time of the Crash. The Pilot and Two (2) Medics onboard were all killed in this accident.
The identities of the LifeNet personnel killed in today's Tucson helicopter crash will be withheld from the public until the families can be notified.
A on-scene investigation into today's Helicopter crash is now under way. Tucson Police and Fire initially responded to the scene of the crash, and the FAA and an NTSB Team will join in investigating the cause of the crash. LifeNet is a Non-profit Agency.
LifeNet Pilot Alex Kelly 61, Paramedic Brenda French 28, and Flight Nurse Parker Summons age 41, were killed in the Line of Duty. The crew and helicopter were both based at Southeast Arizona Medical Center in Douglas. They were switching out helicopters for routine maintenance, and had just picked up the LifeNet 12 chopper from the airport in Marana. The crew was headed back to Douglas at the time of the crash. The helicopter was a new aircraft that was just put into operation last year, and had 350 hours of total use. The LifeNet 12 helicopter was the team's primary aircraft.
