AEMT Orientation

[NomadicMedic]

I am adding AEMTs to our system and while I have a good grasp on what they may and may not do, I'm curious how your service is utilizing AEMT level providers and how is your service orienting these providers to the system? Specifically, how do they function in a system with Paramedics? Are they taking Advanced level calls or are they just "medic assistants"?

Thanks.

 

[DrParasite]

we don't use them, we don't give people any more money to be AEMT or intermediates, we allow people to be credentialed to the AEMT level, but we require a paramedic to be on every ambulance in the county.

I think in Va there are different levels of AEMT, so they do things a little bit differently, and the NYS EMT-CC is like paramedic-lite, but in the county I work in, as well as the surrounding counties, an AEMT just means you a skilled medic assistant, vs an unskilled medic assistant (which is how EMTs are treated, since they can't do many of the ALS interventions).

 

[PotatoMedic]

We pay them a little more than a medic. Allow them to start lines and run fluids. But if any meds are given per our med director requirements a medic must transport. During training they are evaluated on their ability to assist a medic and run bls level calls .

 

[Peak]

My field service does not use them, only paramedics and RNs can provide ALS care. I have never personally worked for or been affiliated with a system that utilized AEMTs, there was one neighboring fire district who had a couple and would put them on their trucks as a ALS supplement but still required the ALS providers on the engines to be medics. That department then could only transport by handing off to a medic or riding in on a BLS bus, but their trucks rarely ran medical calls anyway so it wasn't a huge deal.

 

[RocketMedic]

Here, they're functionally useless beyond skills. QI eats us alive if we don't ALS an ILS patient.

 

[NomadicMedic]

Luckily, I'm QI. I'm building specific criteria for ILS level calls and plan on using them as an adjunct to offset the medics,

 

[SandpitMedic]

The AEMTs here can give some meds and start IVs/fluids as well as place igels. Recently they gained the ability to place IOs in the proximal Tibia.

Without an ALS partner they can give quite a few medications such as Benedryl and Epi for allergic reactions, Epi for codes, and Narcan for suspected opioid overdoses.

We run medic/AEMT or medic/medic ground units in all of our area, and basic/AEMT 911 ground units in some parts of the area. The ILS 911 units only respond to Alpha level calls, but we all know that just because a call is coded as an Alpha doesn’t necessarily make it non-emergent.