# EMS Lieutenant



## JJR512 (Dec 11, 2010)

This question is for those of you who are members of a volunteer FD/EMS (or EMS only) organization. Does your station have an "EMS Lieutenant"? If so, what does that person do as part of their "job" as the EMS Lt.?

My station doesn't have one now. I know some of the other volunteer stations in my county do have one, but I'm not sure if they all do or not.

Another station where I was a member several years ago (in another county) had one. The only thing I ever knew him to do in his "official capacity" as EMS Lt. was that if there was ever any EMS-specific in-house training, he was usually the one that presented the new info, but that was about it, as far as I can remember. Of course, I have no idea what may have been going on behind the scenes, as it were.

So basically, what does or should an EMS Lt. do?


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## EMSLaw (Dec 11, 2010)

We're EMS only, so we have a whole slate of officers.  A Captain, two lieutenants, and two sergeants.  Each one is a crew chief, and also has a secondary responsiblity - uniforms, supplies, new member orientation, or patient care report care and feeding (each one of them has one "portfolio").  Also, they're supposed to monitor for, and respond to, major incidents so that they can assume incident command and free up the duty crew for patient care. 

As far as required training, they need EMS Officer I, ICS to 300, EMS-LSI, and one or two other things that escape me at the moment.


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## firemedic07 (Dec 11, 2010)

i work for a private EMS company, and we have a LT. and chiefs and such but i dont have a clue what the Lt's job is lol.


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## Bullets (Dec 11, 2010)

Our LTs have ICS 100, 200, 300, 400 and NIMS 700, 800, LSI, MCI, NJ Tranist incident response, Hazmat/CBRNE Ops, Confined Space Ops, and some other technical classes. They are responsible for ordering supplies, maintaining our Cascade system, coordinating night duty crews, and some other small things


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## katgrl2003 (Dec 11, 2010)

The last private service I worked for had 3 LTs and one captain as shift supervisors, and upper management were 2 majors and one LT colonel.


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## Tommerag (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm on a volunteer fire/rescue we have 1 chief, 2 assistant chiefs, 2 captains, and 1 EMS officer. The ems officer is responsible for ordering medical supplies and equipment when we run out or need new stuff and also helps to write new protocols and keeping them up to date and getting them signed off by the medical director.


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## jjesusfreak01 (Dec 11, 2010)

Bullets said:


> Our LTs have ICS 100, 200, 300, 400 and NIMS 700, 800, LSI, MCI, NJ Tranist incident response, Hazmat/CBRNE Ops, Confined Space Ops, and some other technical classes. They are responsible for ordering supplies, maintaining our Cascade system, coordinating night duty crews, and some other small things



This is also a fire service...gave it away with the cascade system...and everything else.


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## JPINFV (Dec 11, 2010)

jjesusfreak01 said:


> This is also a fire service...gave it away with the cascade system...and everything else.



The first ambulance company I worked for maintained a cascade system for refilling the portable O2 tanks.


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## medic417 (Dec 11, 2010)

JPINFV said:


> The first ambulance company I worked for maintained a cascade system for refilling the portable O2 tanks.



Every station I have worked for has an O2 cascade system for filling truck mains and portables.  

The fire systems here just have a compressor to fill the SCBA's rather than using a cascade.


Oh and as far as the NIMS ICS training all emergency personnel should have every one of those classes not just those with rank.  Some grants now require 100% compliance if you apply.


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## EMSLaw (Dec 11, 2010)

medic417 said:


> Oh and as far as the NIMS ICS training all emergency personnel should have every one of those classes not just those with rank.  Some grants now require 100% compliance if you apply.



All personnel require at least ICS-100 and NIMS-700.  200 may also be required, but 300 and 400 are definitely not a requirement for NIMS compliance for first responders.


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## jjesusfreak01 (Dec 11, 2010)

JPINFV said:


> The first ambulance company I worked for maintained a cascade system for refilling the portable O2 tanks.



Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I though a Cascade system fills tanks with compressed air, rather than compressed O2 which is used for medical applications? Do you have an O2 generation system?


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## JPINFV (Dec 11, 2010)

The cascade system we had set up used 4 M sized tanks (same as in the ambulance) set up like this:






The only difference was a little cardboard sign on each labed 1-4. Hook up your portable (D for the gurney, Es for backup if I recall correctly. Remembering the letters aren't my strong suit), open the portable, open tank 1, let equalize, close tank 1, repeat for 2-4, close small tank, remove.


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## JJR512 (Dec 11, 2010)

jjesusfreak01 said:


> Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I though a Cascade system fills tanks with compressed air, rather than compressed O2 which is used for medical applications? Do you have an O2 generation system?



A cascade system can be used with any type of compressed gas, or gas mixture (like air). It's just a method of connect the supply bottles to each other and to the fill bottle. What's actually in the bottles is irrelevant.


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## Bullets (Dec 12, 2010)

jjesusfreak01 said:


> This is also a fire service...gave it away with the cascade system...and everything else.



Wrong, I'm with two ems agencies, one is a fulltime volunteer squad and the other is a hybrid paid days, staffed volunteers at night. Both use cascade systems to fill the portable O2 cylinders and both have those educational requirements for their officers


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