EMSLt

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  2. Posted

     

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    A Florida man died on his 89th birthday when he crashed his car into a fire hydrant and drowned, the state Highway Patrol said Thursday.

     

    The man, Robert Dreyer, veered off the road and into a hydrant Wednesday in the town of Viera, 40 miles southeast of Orlando, the patrol said.

     

    Dreyer appeared to be unhurt after the crash, but when he stepped out of the car to check on the damage, "the water pressure was so strong that it sucked him in and pulled him into the hole," Pedro Rodriguez, an eyewitness, told NBC affiliate WESH.

     

     

    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-man-crashes-fire-hydrant-drowns-89th-birthday-n758216

  6. Posted

    From The Wall Street Journal

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    By the end of an eight-hour shift in the Bronx, paramedic Barbara Aziz had treated a man who had broken his leg falling from a building, revived another man who stopped breathing after a heroin overdose and cradled a moments-old baby girl born unexpectedly in a public-housing apartment.

    Ms. Aziz and her partner had responded to 13 emergency calls—two to three times more than a typical paramedic crew in the Bronx. The reason: She was behind the wheel of a “fly car,” not an ambulance.

    Ms. Aziz’s red Ford Explorer is one of 10 specially equipped sport-utility vehicles that rolled out last year in the Bronx as part of a pilot program designed to improved emergency response in the New York City borough with the most medical calls per person in the past year.

    The fly cars allow paramedics, the most highly trained first responders in emergency medical services, to respond to priority calls without taking patients to the hospital. That task, which Ms. Aziz estimates can take paramedics away from responding to calls for at least an hour, is handled by ambulances that respond along with the fly cars.

    The Fire Department of New York had a record number of medical calls last year. The fly cars are a response to that increase as fire departments nationwide play a bigger role in emergency medical care.

    New York City firefighters and emergency medical staff members together responded to 1.44 million medical emergencies last year, up from 1.03 million in 1996, according to department statistics.


    The city has added $40 million for more ambulance shifts over the past two years and lowered the average response time for medical calls by 21 seconds since 2015, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
    The fly car program came out of a steering group that Fire Commissioner Dan Nigro put together to look at innovations in emergency medical services, said Ed Dolan, FDNY’s deputy commissioner for strategy and policy.

    Along with the fly cars, the department created a five-ambulance “tactical response group” in the Bronx that can be deployed wherever needed, rather than being assigned to a specific geographic area like other ambulances.

    New York is also testing a computerized triage system for 911 dispatchers, to replace a set of flip cards now used to prioritize medical calls. The system, expected to be fully implemented this spring, will allow for better data collection so that the department can determine, for instance, which questions being asked by dispatchers are wasting precious seconds and which are eliciting needed information.

    “What we’re finding is that response times have improved more in the Bronx than any other borough,” said Mr. Dolan.

    Ms. Aziz, the paramedic who is also a supervisor, said she thinks the tactical response group, more than the fly cars, are responsible for the faster response times. But the fly cars are allowing her and other paramedics to respond to more calls, she said.

    During her 13-call shift, she had to help transport patients to the hospital only twice.

    “The good thing is, if we’re not needed, we don’t have to hang out there,” she said. “The [ambulance] can take the patient and we can be available for the next call.”

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    https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-bronx-fly-cars-aim-to-speed-up-emergency-care-1486216800

    Billy and Westfield12 like this

  14. Posted

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    The NSVAC was asking for a disbursement of about $14,500 from their $75,000 per diem staff budget to contract with Westchester Emergency Medical Services (WEMS) for part-time professional help.

    The professionals would be on call from 7 p.m. on Saturdays to 7 p.m. on Sundays, once a week from Nov. 1 - Jan. 1.

     

    "It's just to give our volunteers Saturday night and Sunday to be with their families," Hlushko said. "If we want to save the town $75,000 next year, coming up with some new volunteers would help."

     

     

    http://northsalem.dailyvoice.com/events/north-salem-ambulance-corps-needs-new-volunteers/685130/

    EmsFirePolice likes this

  15. Posted

    My question is more how is the County, or select municipalities, are technically awarding business that in other sectors of government would have to go out to a competitive bid?  For example, a VAC can't get out.....a commercial provider who has the ALS contract advises 60 Control they have a BLS unit available, and then 60 Control assigns the call to that commercial provider skipping over retones (which we know don't work) and the next up mutual aid. Routinely. 

  16. Posted

    If 60 Control, as part of Westchester Government, at an agencies request or on their own, repeatedly uses a single commercial provider for VAC's that can't get out the door, then doesn't that type of activity require a RFP/RFQ?  And this isn't mutual aid, it's a grey area band aid fix that is becoming routine several times a day activity.  If New Rochelle, White Plains, etc all have to go through the bid process for EMS providers, then why aren't all commercial providers afforded the opportunity for the business? Or does it fall under exisiting flycar contracts?

  17. Posted

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     Hartsdale Fire Chief Ed Rush told Tax Watch the funds are used for "day-to-day living expenses" at the fire house, such as coffee, milk and newspapers. The money has funded new televisions and couches at the station. It also provides what Rush called "a small thank-you payment" to paid firefighters when they retire, and live on their public pensions. He declined to state just how much as "a small thank-you payment" was worth in Hartsdale.

     

    So, there's no better way to spend the money then to buy coffee and newspapers for well-paid firefighters?  At least the Chief's honest. Seems like the Commissioners are also the volunteers.

  19. Posted

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    Trouble on the Tappan Zee? Who you gonna call? Nyack Community Ambulance Corps, which has been answering the call, day and night long before there was a TZB.

     

    The 77 year old 24/7 volunteer-run agency will receive a $140,000 grant to replace its oldest ambulance, courtesy of the New NY Bridge Project Community Benefits Program.

     

     

    http://www.nyacknewsandviews.com/?p=74696

    EmsFirePolice likes this