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Answers to questions about local EMS |
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April 26, 2017 |
By Chief Jeff Lindsey
As questions in the community come up about our
county's ambulance service, as the chief, I like
to take time and answer them. A question that I
hear occasionally is this: Why does Boundary
Ambulance employee so many paramedics?
To answer this question I want to make it clear
on the difference between skill sets on an
ambulance.
* EMT-Basic is the entry level certification that you must have to treat
the patients in “the back” of the ambulance.
This is considered Basic Life Support (BLS) and
the course is around 140 hours. EMT-Basics are
taught how to handle medical and trauma
emergencies with basic skills like bandaging,
splinting, oxygen delivery all within what is
called “scope of practice.” Currently BAS is
holding an EMT-Basic class with hopefully new
EMT-Basics to join our team soon!
* EMT-Advanced is the next level certification and this adds other
tools into a scope of practice. EMT-Advance
providers are able to use skills like IV therapy
and some pharmacology. Currently we have several
EMT-Advanced providers who volunteer with us.
* EMT-Paramedics are the highest level of providers on the ambulance.
Paramedics generally have to go to school for
two years with over a thousand hours of clinical
time required. Paramedic schools are hard to
find and the education can be costly. Our most
recent paramedics hired spent around $15,000 for
the education. Paramedics provide Advanced Life
Support (ALS), which includes ECG
interpretation, drug administration, advanced
airway skills, chest decompression among others.
Boundary Ambulance Service (BAS) employs seven
fulltime paramedics, including the chief, and
two pro re nata (PRN, or "as needed")
paramedics. This equals two paramedics 24/7, 365
days a year.
Currently BAS has three shifts, each running 48
hours on and 96 hours off. Each shift has two
paramedics assigned and these paramedics work
alongside the EMT-Basic and EMT-Advanced
volunteer providers. This works much like some
fire departments, where you have paid and
volunteer staff, or police departments with paid
officers and reserve officers.
Our volunteers are integral to our agency as
they provide the “other half” of the ambulance
crew.
This brings us back to the question; why two
paramedics per shift?
This is the model that I, as the chief, have
adopted, to try and keep ALS coverage in the
county 24/7.
We have a contract in place with Boundary County
that specifies we will provide coverage to
Boundary County at the ALS level. Currently we
average around 30 interfacilty transfers from
Boundary Community Hospital per month. This
averages to one transfer per day.
When an ALS transfer is requested, depending on
the destination, this could take a paramedic out
of our county for quite some time, usually no
less than four hours. Because we have amazing
volunteers who drive transfers and back-fill for
coverage, we can staff that ambulance and send a
paramedic out of the county and still have a
paramedic covering.
During bad weather when the helicopter isn’t
flying, we could be handling multiple requests
for transfers to other hospitals -- and some of
these are time critical!
Many days, I have covered while we had two ALS
transfers at the same time. Since I am a
paramedic before I am a chief, I can cover
ambulances day or night if needed.
Using our paramedics as wisely and efficiently
as possible, each shift will soon have
paramedics trained at the Critical Care
Paramedic and Community Paramedic level, which
is my goal by the end of 2017.
Our ambulance service has some of the best and
most dedicated volunteers of anywhere I have
ever experienced. We are fortunate as well to
have paramedics from all over with different
diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Together, side by side, we work to provide the
best and highest level of pre-hospital care
available.
Anytime anyone from our community has questions
about the way Boundary Ambulance operates,
please ask me, I love to talk about our great
service. I will make this one of many questions
and answer type posts, so in return our
community is better aware of how their ambulance
service works for them. |
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