Philadelphia's system is dying

[Philly Medic]

Check out this. I wonder if this will stop the abuse of 911?

http://cbs3.com/topstories/911.Emergency.Phone.2.597347.html

[engwork4me]

According to sources, paramedics in an Advance Life Support ambulance or ALS asked the dispatcher if they could respond instead, since they are equipped with drugs to stabilize the heart and breathing tubes, things a basic ambulance does not have. The two ambulances were just blocks away from one another on Arch Street.The dispatcher denied the request. When asked if he stood by everything that was done that day, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said: "I looked at the timelines; I looked at everything that was done, we feel sorry that that person was lost, we did what we could."

You know damn well once their lawyer gets a hold of this report...them tapes are gonna be pulled....and it's not looking good on the city's end!

I think some family is going to get a large ammount of money after this one. In montgomery county just about every squad runs a Medic on Each Ambulance. Theres one Ambulance Provider that is basic 24/7 How ever. Each call is classified as ALS or BLS. So if someone calls in their status with just basic Status (BLS) and an ALS run comes in their automatically covered with an ALS truck as well as them. Apparantly The city of philadelphia Ain't that way.


No one is blaming EMT's or dispatchers
F*cking damn Right I would. It appears it's up to the dispatcher to send the correct apparatus and Equipment! Someone Dropped the ball! I work on a border line of the city. I'd rather take a walk or drive to Montgomery County and call for help!


Let me Hop back on the soap box right quick. The Police Dispatching is Horrible too. I was involved in a minor fender bender about 3 weeks ago. We waited for a Cop to come do a report for close to an hr. About 20 minutes in waiting for the cop. the disptacher says "ohh yeah car XX-X will be there shortly." What a crock of s*it. I think some cop was coming over the bridge from NJ(on other police business) saw us and out of the decancy of their hearts decided to do the report for us. The car that was assigned never showed up.

All i can hope is a new mayor starts soon. I hope he's alot better then the one we have now!

[scotttt]

I'll be surprised if that report changes anything. Remember the expose the city paper did a few years back? (It was a hell of a lot more indepth than this report.) Anything change? No.

What's always sort of baffled me is the relative silence of the IAFF. They went ballistic when (oh, god forbid) the city proposed moving firehouses and/or putting engines and ladders out of service, but when it comes to EMS... *crickets*

Why are there no EMTs to work BLS? Why don't the FF/EMTs handle BLS calls when pulling OT on a "limited MIC"? Why are there not MORE BLS units available to handle the BS so that ALS can handle the true emergencies? Why doesn't the city employ Medical Priority Dispatching? Why not put as much resources and consideration into EMS as the fire side (considering that something like 3/4 of the FDs call volume is EMS)? Maybe allow private companies such as AMR, Network, or Keystone to handle BS?

I would surmise that the best option for EMS in Philly would be to remove it from the FD and turn it into a 3rd service.

[Philly Medic]

We do have FF/EMT work the BLS units but they are not all 24 hr units.

When the FFer are working OT in "limited mics" they are driving the medic and we are not allowed (medical director decision) to let them handle the BLS call. This report was on the least watched news station.

Alot of our dispatchers do not know the streets in Philly so even when we tell them our location it means nothing. We have GPS but they rarely use it and the few times they did it was to jam up a unit.

As far as waiting for a police car an MVC is low priority and the police are stretched almost as far as us. But we have a class of 7 going through the academy right now, like that will help since we have over 10 vacancies and not counting IOD's

[engwork4me]

We do have FF/EMT work the BLS units but they are not all 24 hr units.

When the FFer are working OT in "limited mics" they are driving the medic and we are not allowed (medical director decision) to let them handle the BLS call.

So a Cardiac Emergency( going by montco terms) or Chest Pains Is considered a BLS Run. Is it up to the dispatcher to determine wether or not ALS is needed?

[CornholioMedic]

Sorta sounds like Detroit...24 medic units handling 170,000 runs per year, when we need 35-40 units. For Christ's sakes, we can't even get PTL's or head beds in a timely manner.

[Philly Medic]

Sorta sounds like Detroit...24 medic units handling 170,000 runs per year, when we need 35-40 units. For Christ's sakes, we can't even get PTL's or head beds in a timely manner.

Most of our ALS units average 7000 runs a year. We have periods almost every day where there are no medic units available in the city and when the first one does clear up from the last call there are sent. Many times you are crossing the city and it can take 40-45 minutes with light traffic.