RushTheBus

I didn't say that it had anything to do with it, I just said that it made me think of it.

But that being said, mutual aid EMS was requested yesterday (for standby in quarters), as well as the response of the EMS Mutual Aid Zone Coordinator. I was wondering if any of these procedures had been included in an "official" county mutual aid plan. Not to discredit the great work that OVAC does, but this might have also been a good opportunity to request an EMS task force, or at least more of a response than just 1 BLS and 1 ALS unit. I understand that this was not an active shooter, and it was just a report of a person with a gun in a school, but wouldn't we rather have these units responding and staging and available if needed than scrambling at the last minute when the situation escalates? Especially during the daytime when we know that coverage in Westchester County is oftentimes a struggle.

Full disclosure, I'm not trying to start a war here, or talk about what OVAC did/did not do right, just looking for some constructive discussion on the overall Mutual Aid plan, and Westchester's handling of potential MCI scenarios.

I don't know the specifics, but there was a report of a possible person with a gun inside the High School. I know the schools were placed on lockdown and were swept by PD.

It looks like WC DES has removed the EMS Mutual Aid plan from their website. Does anybody have a copy of this or does anybody know if there is a new version? The incident in Ossining today made me think about it.

Thanks.

I will try to look for it. It is in federal law tied to CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services). I had a copy of it a number of years ago.

Thanks Barry, or maybe you could be a bit more specific about your definitions for "hard" and "soft" billing?

Any billing "soft" or "Hard" is illegal in a fire district based EMS in NYS.

"Soft" billing, while commonly done, particularly by many VAC's is illegal under Medicare/Medicaid rules

Barry, could you please provide a reference for this statement? I'm having trouble finding it. Thanks.

I could be wrong, but I don't believe there is an "official" NYS patch for EMTs or Paramedics. The blue tombstone, and the orange shoulder patch are certainly the most common, but I don't believe there is an official NYSDOH approved uniform patch.

Eastchester EMS - 2334 Calls, 2403 Patients

Bottom Line: VAC's in Westchester (many of them) have not been able to provide 24/7 BLS for a very long time. Answer: Many came up with a billing scheme (I say this word in the English fashion, it's not defamatory) if insurance pays for the transport and ALS service many of the VAC's responsibly set up the per diem system years ago; they collect the revenue for the ALS and the BLS systems.

Most of the Medics I've known through my career, made ends meet by working their A job, which wasn't enough to pay the bills, and then a B job at a VAC, call it EMS now, fine.

The Medics in particular (from my FD BLS provider background) have been a welcome addition in a system I worked where we often had a PD stand-by, a late FD response because of no BLS VAC bus (so we looked like dopes showing up 25 minutes later).

Because EVAC years ago was able to obtain primary medical responder status for the entire EFD district, including the villages, we as an FD could not have upgraded to ALS if we wanted to.

I credit one or two guys Paul and Fazz for setting up the EVAC/EMS system. As far as I know it's been able to function with additional help from the TOE for equipment, like a bus purchase would come from the Community Fund.

George, in reference to your last sentence, were you trying to say "able to function withOUT additional help from the TOE?" Our funds from the Town and Villages, while still extremely important to us, have dropped to about $20,000 per year. And because we are not a tax district, we really survive completely off of soft third party billing and donations from the community. We have been extremely lucky for the last 10 years to have partnered with the Community Fund who donates funds for us to be use towards our ambulance replacement program.

In terms of our operations, Eastchester VAC, as I've said before, offers numerous services to the community we serve, one of which being Eastchester EMS, primary EMS service to the Town of Eastchester and Villages of Bronxville and Tuckahoe. We have a paid Paramedic staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (sometimes double medics during storms, big incidents, etc.) who operates an ALS fly car. We also pay an EMT Monday thru Saturday, from 7am to 7pm, who is only to go on the ambulance if no volunteers are in house. Most days, this EMT has a pretty good gig and gets to sit around while the volunteers handle the system, other days, he or she becomes a vital aspect of our operations (if a volunteer is late for their shift, for the inevitable 2nd and 3rd call back-to-back in district that Eastchester is known for, etc.)

Again, as I've said before, our system isn't perfect by any means, but it's pretty effective. The volunteers don't have the luxury of relying on the paid staff to cover the calls like some other agencies. Eastchester's volunteers are still the primary force, and we're quite proud of that. What hurts our system is when we get called to Lockwood Avenue for the "sick", around the corner from Sound Shore, because TransCare was busy. I'm not saying that we never call mutual aid, because we do, but a paid service shouldn't be relying on ScarVac, or Eastchester, or TMAD. In my 10 years at EVAC, we've been called ONCE to Yonkers, and Empress threatened to fire the dispatcher for doing it, even though he knew it was the right call to make. (That's me ranting, and shouldn't be taken personally by anybody.)

I don't post often, but I read often, and I truly feel that the only way to making EMS in Westchester (and fire/PD) is to be open and talk about it, so please feel free to PM me if you want to continue the discussion.

Thanks,

Kevin

Eastchester VAC has been working the last couple of years on our branding strategy and the decision to keep or get rid of the term "VAC" is always up for discussion.

The way we look at it now is that the Eastchester Volunteer Amublance Corps Inc. is the parent company. EVAC provides various services to the community including CPR classes, blood drives, information sessions to various community groups, as well as Emergency Medical Services comprised of paid and volunteer EMT's and Paramedics. This service is called Eastchester EMS.

Who knows if this is right or not, and this could always change, but we're trying it out for now.

Eastchester VAC - 2274

Eastchester VAC - 2,187 calls

Apparently the ambulance was a Westchester EMS Alpha Unit coming from Mt Kisco because Somers had to go Mutual Aid.

Rescue - Who knows??? But people are going to have to give in sooner or later, or somebody is going to get hurt. Just as AB was saying, having only 2 people on a rig arriving at a fire is dangerous, and its a problem that plagues Westchester and many other counties. I'd rather have an engine take 2 to 5 extra minutes to arrive if it was fully staffed (and fully staffed is not a driver and a passenger). But I guess thats a whole different argument.

A lot of good discussion here. I think that there are valid parts to all sides of this argument, but I just don't see an across the board merger in Westchester happening any time soon. Each department is going to have to figure out what works best for them to get Fire and EMS crews out in a timely manner. If it means supplementing your volunteers with some paid personnel, then maybe that's what has to be done.

efd184 - out of curiosity, you seem very against volunteers in your posts on this board. Did you get your start as a volunteer ever or did you go right into the paid service?

Has this new ambulance been delivered yet?

Word on the street is that it will be put into service tomorrow. 57B4 has been officially retired.

Donated for sure. Our last ambulance went to the Eastchester PD for use with its multi-town ERT, for transporting officers and gear, but I'm not sure we've made it official where B4 will go as of yet.

It is going to be a 2007 Ford E-350 Superduty/Lifeline Paraliner sold by Eastford Fire and Rescue Sales. Details and Photos to follow.

Authority of 57-12

Hopeful delivery to be before the new year. We've also re-striped 57-B2 to finally get away from the old green color. All 3 buses will be of the new navy blue and yellow color scheme.

sounds like a 5th alarm now, easchester engine 31 sent to cover station 3 in the vern...thats the last i've heard...its gonna be a long night in westchester

roe i'm EVAC too. as far as i know this is our first fire since we've switched to 60 control so thats why i was wondering if we were part of the initial call, and also how communications went...it would have been interesting if an EMS call had come in while FD had a working fire...its bound to happen sooner or later...

does anybody know if EVAC and Medic 1 was dispatched with the FD in the original run, or if they were requested by 2102 after the fact...