trauma74

The Bureau of EMS was notified late Friday afternoon that the Trustee handling the TransCare EMS bankruptcy  ordered Transcare Hudson Valley to cease operations and to pull their units from service in Putnam.  The Bureau was immediately authorized by County Executive MaryEllen Odell to Implement its contingency plan. This evening we are transitioning the County ALS FlyCar system from TransCare to EMSTAR. Fortunately most of the TransCare staff have accepted positions with EMSTAR.  Due to the last minute notice we were only able to initially activate 3 EMSTAR Flycars to replace the four TransCare Units. We are hopeful we can have the fourth ALS Unit and a BLS Unit in service at some point this weekend or early next week. This has been a trying time for the TransCare staff and Bureau staff as well. We will do everything in our power to maintain an ALS system that continues to assure the health and safety of all our residents. Please be patient with us as we move forward with our new ALS provider. Thank you.  Commissioner Sutton

They gave the test a few years ago and they have not exhausted the list yet, so it will probably be a while before they give it again.

EMStar is taking over Putnam. It is confirmed. 

The Bureau of EMS was notified late Friday afternoon that the Trustee handling the TransCare EMS bankruptcy  ordered Transcare Hudson Valley to cease operations and to pull their units from service in Putnam.  The Bureau was immediately authorized by County Executive MaryEllen Odell to Implement its contingency plan. This evening we are transitioning the County ALS FlyCar system from TransCare to EMSTAR. Fortunately most of the TransCare staff have accepted positions with EMSTAR.  Due to the last minute notice we were only able to initially activate 3 EMSTAR Flycars to replace the four TransCare Units. We are hopeful we can have the fourth ALS Unit and a BLS Unit in service at some point this weekend or early next week. This has been a trying time for the TransCare staff and Bureau staff as well. We will do everything in our power to maintain an ALS system that continues to assure the health and safety of all our residents. Please be patient with us as we move forward with our new ALS provider. Thank you.  Commissioner Sutton

The Bureau of EMS was notified late Friday afternoon that the Trustee handling the TransCare EMS bankruptcy  ordered Transcare Hudson Valley to cease operations and to pull their units from service in Putnam.  The Bureau was immediately authorized by County Executive MaryEllen Odell to Implement its contingency plan. This evening we are transitioning the County ALS FlyCar system from TransCare to EMSTAR. Fortunately most of the TransCare staff have accepted positions with EMSTAR.  Due to the last minute notice we were only able to initially activate 3 EMSTAR Flycars to replace the four TransCare Units. We are hopeful we can have the fourth ALS Unit and a BLS Unit in service at some point this weekend or early next week. This has been a trying time for the TransCare staff and Bureau staff as well. We will do everything in our power to maintain an ALS system that continues to assure the health and safety of all our residents. Please be patient with us as we move forward with our new ALS provider. Thank you.  Commissioner Sutton

 
 
The current owner of EMStar is not the same guy who owned and ran Hudson Valley Paramedics, which eventually became Care1 EMS. The people involved in those 2 companies have nothing to do with EMStar. EMStar has the NY Division and they have a Philadelphia Division. EMStar is part of a larger corporation that owns a series of nursing homes in NY & PA. 
 
Their NY Base is in Suffern, NY, with stations in Westchester County and Orange County. They have contracts with different medical facilities around Orange, Rockland and Westchester Counties. They also provide 911 ALS services to Cornwall & Warwick VACs and they get called mutual aid by OC911 if Mobile Life does not have units available. Since all the problems with TransCare started, EMStar has been expanding by adding more staff and more ambulances. 

 
 
The current owner of EMStar is not the same guy who owned and ran Hudson Valley Paramedics, which eventually became Care1 EMS. The people involved in those 2 companies have nothing to do with EMStar. EMStar has the NY Division and they have a Philadelphia Division. EMStar is part of a larger corporation that owns a series of nursing homes in NY & PA. 
 
Their NY Base is in Suffern, NY, with stations in Westchester County and Orange County. They have contracts with different medical facilities around Orange, Rockland and Westchester Counties. They also provide 911 ALS services to Cornwall & Warwick VACs and they get called mutual aid by OC911 if Mobile Life does not have units available. Since all the problems with TransCare started, EMStar has been expanding by adding more staff and more ambulances. 

Something that strikes me is very few EMS agencies in the area have turnout gear issued to each member, including a helmet and googles. These aren't only good for pin jobs, but fire scenes, WMD and HazMat jobs, people in the woods, abandoned buildings, tech rescues, etc. We all get by on that old, non fitting, non compliant gear thrown in a compartment. But there is gear made for EMS, without the bulky structural firefighting stuff since it isn't need, making it much more lightweight.
Is there some sort of mandate that could be made countywide that all EMS Agencies must have EMS style turnout gear? But I figure if it was a county or state mandate, it would be unfunded. I know a lot of EMS Agencies are revolving doors, and that would cause an issue.
My next question on this issue...if an EMT or Paramedic need to get into a heavily damaged vehicle to treat a patient, do we let them without any sort of PPE? My opinion...we don't have an option in that situation.

For those that don't know. I have some sort of flu that's more or less made moving my muscles and joints immensely painful, and I've been battling that for the last week, and just yesterday started battling an 102 degree fevers. However, the one thing I hade couldn't get out of  scheduled for months was to get this website upgraded, and I was mucking my way through it via several naps.
 
So, I'm just was laying down, about to fall asleep, when, one of my best buffy friends called me. He said the truck was done, and looked awesome. I couldn't just sit here and wait any longer, I've been waiting for this truck to come out of the Greenburgh Central Garage Heavy Duty Body Shop. Everything mechanical, body, electrical including radios, etc has been done via the Town Garage. And they did a fantastic job on this pierce that will bring Greenburgh SOD to new levels. So, being this is literally 2 blocks from my house, I bundled up, walked like a stick amn, and even vomited a couple of times so I can get this shot for EMTBravo
 
Greenburgh PD has acquired this from NYPD surplus, it's a 2003 Mack MR/Saulsbury Ex-Truck 5. It will replace their current 1988 International/Hackney that was converted from it's previous life as a Poland Springs delivery truck for the Technical Rescue team, and/or be used to carry SWAT equipment.
 
Best wishes to all the officers in Greenburgh SOD who's lives will be made easier by this truck.
 
This truck is a prime example of what municipal cooperation can do, Special Thanks to msm232, Bob Errico , and the body shop guys for the shotperation can do, Special Thanks to msm232, Bob Errico , and the body shop guys for the shot
 
 

Photos from today's NYPD REMA (Retired Emergency Man's Association) Day of Remembrance at the NYPD SOD Facilites at Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn.
All photos by me.

I have confirmed that Jim O'Connor has returned to Empress EMS sometime this past week. He recently "retired" from TransCare EMS, as President of the company. His supposed title is, Director of Marketing.

Channel 5 is a split Tx and Rx channel similar to a repeater but there's no repeater involved. They added channel 6 and 13 to be "monitor channels for channel 5"
Almost all of the departments in Putnam have gone to VHF, UHF and Tband for firegrounds. All of the western Putnam departments have moved to UHF and Tband (due to difficulty obtaining VHF frequencies so close to the Hudson River), the east side of the county is mostly VHF. Alot of the departments that did go to high band are using district wide repeaters and in vehicle crossband repeaters so they can use their high band portables to communicate on low band and maintain interoperability. There's some talk about revamping the whole system.

You would think, that in light of the recent violence toward police officers around the Country, that they would not want to wear a police style uniform. They do not carry weapons, so when they are mistaken for police officers, they have no way to defend themselves. Also, they used to drive difference colored cars than the NYPD. Now, they drive the same colored cars too. It can be confusing to motorists who think that a vehicle with red lights behind it is a police car, when in fact, it is not.

Here is the new body style Chargers, first of their kind up here. Saratoga Springs Police has 3 that are currently awaiting upfit.

The DEC is putting into service new Dodge Durangos (pictured below) and Ram pickups (not pictured).

The Town of Montgomery AC staffs M-F 6a-6p with 2 EMTs.

Those VACs are still volunteer, for now. I can see some paid staff in the future for some of them. The majority of the remaining VACs in OC have paid staff, either full time or part time to supplement the volunteers.

I am selling 1 pair of navy blue Fire-Dex brand bunker pants. Size: 40X29. They are in excellent condition. Never worn inside of a fire. Worn a few times on scene of MVAs. Black padded Fire-Dex suspenders come with the pants. Retail price is $500+. I am asking $400 or best offer. No reasonable offer will be turned down.

http://www.westchestermagazine.com/Westchester-Magazine/April-2015/Are-Volunteer-Ambulance-Corps-A-thing-Of-The-Past-In-Westchester/#.VR_DDkUZuOw.twitter

Keep dreaming......hahahaha
From the fire side of the issue, you're never going to get commissioners to say that consolidation of fire departments is a good thing, especially in all of these towns where the commissioners are also firefighters and have too much pride for their respective companies.. This one is going to have to come from the taxpayers (once they all figure it out and band together). I say, let this one play out and see how it works for a full county of police departments, then maybe we can re-discuss the idea for the fire departments.

How many calls a year do both departments do?
Also curious....does 60 Control have a dedicated call taker position?
How is the room broken up? North South? Are the departments split about even between dispatchers?
I would imagine New Rochelle has its own dispatcher?

Looking forward to it, very precise and efficient and it will limit unnecessary radio chit-chat

Dobbs Ferry FD made the switch over also to 60.

Starting yesterday, Hastings FD is now dispatched by 60 Control for all fire and EMS calls.

In my opinion, if you have this type of vehicle (METU) available at your disposal, why not utilize it for different types of incidents i.e. MCIs. I am sure that Yonkers would be more than happy to send their METU wherever it is needed, but there should be a County METU that responds to the same types of incidents as the Yonkers METU. What if there is an major incident that requires more than 1 METU? The recent train accident could have been much worse with so many more casualties. In that case, more than 1 METU would be needed.
I understand that the main purpose of the DES METU is to evacuate SNFs, but the evacuation of SNFs is not something that needs to be done on a regular basis. With that being said, instead of having the METU sitting around collecting dust, they should use it for MCIs, large scale rehab at a fire scene & so on. It would be a good use of the federal tax dollars.