Catalina Island, CA EMS

frdude1000

frdude1000

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I visited Catalina Island today and their were many ems calls I saw. They have their own FD, Avalon Fire Dept. with an ambo. Is it als or bls? Then I saw a LAcoFD Paramedic Squad Car. They also had their own fd station, station 55. So their are two stations in Avalon. Does AFD take the city stuff and LAcoFD take the forest fire stuff? If a patient needs to go to the hospital, do they go by boat or helicopter? Anybody have info?
 
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EMT007

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They've actually got a hospital on island in Avalon with an ER - http://cimedicalcenter.org/

So most things will go there. LAcoFD handles all EMS on the island, AFAIK. If a patient needs a trauma center, they get airlifted by LAcoFD (or LA Sheriffs) chopper to a mainland hospital. I think UCLA is the main destination. For issues requiring a hyperbaric chamber, USC maintains one on the island.
 
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islandmedic

islandmedic

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frdude1000 said:
I visited Catalina Island today and their were many ems calls I saw. They have their own FD, Avalon Fire Dept. with an ambo. Is it als or bls? Then I saw a LAcoFD Paramedic Squad Car. They also had their own fd station, station 55. So their are two stations in Avalon. Does AFD take the city stuff and LAcoFD take the forest fire stuff? If a patient needs to go to the hospital, do they go by boat or helicopter? Anybody have info?
Click to expand...

I apologize for reviving this thread from three years ago but I thought I would just in case you or anyone is still interested. I grew up on Catalina and have family that work for Avalon City Fire. I will say they have a unique set up but it does work.

Avalon fire has a career staff of 11 FF/EMTs supplemented by 20 or so reserve FF. These FF/EMTs staff a BLS rescue. They respond as "City Fire"

LA County Fire Department staffs fire station 55 with a captain and engineer for a total of two career FF. They provide fire protection for everything on Catalina Island outside of Avalon city limits. They respond as "County Fire"

La County Fire Department also staffs Baywatch Avalon under their lifeguard division. This is the ALS component to EMS on catalina. They have a LA county medic squad as well as a lifeguard rescue boat. They respond as "Baywatch Avalon"

A typical EMS response comes in as such, "City Fire and Baywatch Avalon respond to 123 x street for a 50 year old male with chest pain." This will get you the LACoFD squad with two paramedics, the city BLS rescue with two FF/EMTs and a fire captain/EMT who responds in a patrol unit. 9/10 times county station 55 is monitoring comms and unless committed on fire prevention or something else will respond as well giving you two additional FF/EMTs. This system works pretty well and results in very quick response of at least two providers very fast.

The hospital has a 24 hour physician on call. I believe there is three docs and they rotate shifts. This works because the MD can be at hospital so quickly due to the proximity of everything being so close. With that being said, anything more than basic ortho and non emergent medical problems will be airlifted or medi-vac'd out. Lets say our C/P from earlier needs cath lab. Fire will transport to the hospital and a call will be placed to Mercy Air. If Mercy cannot fly LACoFD will call for one of their copters. If they cannot fly they will try LACoSD. As a last ditch effort they will call the coast guard who will fly in pretty much any weather condition.

In some cases such as major traumas or search and rescue ops, the county medics will just call for an airship from the scene and the hospital is avoided altogether.

If you can imagine, with any tourist location, call volume is highest during the summer with most calls for ETOH, falls, golf cart accidents, etc.

I hope this answers your four year old question, haha!
 
chaz90

chaz90

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Wow! I think this is the first time I've seen a question this old answered with a response from the OP.
 
PotatoMedic

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And it was a good answer to a question! not just an "I would like to know that too!"
 
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