Does your agency/department work marathons, fairs, festivals?

Chimpie

Chimpie

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Around here it seems when there is large marathon, festival, fair, etc, that there is a mix of agencies working them. For example, the regatta I worked last month had two EMS bike teams (part of the county EMS), two mobile (golf cart/gator) teams that are part of the EMS Auxiliary (volunteer) and the local Medical Reserve Corps (volunteer) which set up two first aid stations and one mobile (golf cart) teams.

It was interesting to see three different "agencies" working it.

What happens in your area?
 
For major events (R&R Marathon, Fiesta parades, etc), our FD and AMR both work it. AMR provides most of the transport (especially for participants), while we first respond and provide gators and bike medics. We also set up a mobile ER staffed by our medics, a couple RNs and a couple docs. We'll also staff an event company to man first aid tents with EMTs.
 
We cover the majority of events in our area. If we are covering the event we will be the only EMS provider there. For all the events reguardless if we are working them or not, if someone needs to be transported to the hospital we are called to take them. If we are covering an event inside a city where the fire department has their own ambulances then we must call then out for transports unless it's a critical patient.

Pretty much:
1. We don't like to work with other agencies
2. We are the only county approved ALS transport company
3. Things are much smoother when it's all kept in house
4. If an event is on a massive scale we will bring in extra employees from other divisions of our company and also hire temporary positions.
 
Keeping it all in house would make communication much easier, with a lot less confusion. We are much, much more expensive than AMR, though. The city could pay us $45/hr per overtime medic with dual medic trucks, or pay AMR $11/$16 per hr for a basic/medic truck.
 
We do a fair amount of event coverage, particularly over the summer. Oddly enough, many of the volunteer BLS departments don't seem too interested in providing coverage for the frequent smaller scale events. We provide free coverage for most small non-profit events that request us, but we charge for profit organizations $50/hr per medic (I think).

For the larger events, we'll bring out our gators, Medical Surge truck, or bike team. For the biggest marathons or summer fairs we may have some BLS transport units with us as well. Otherwise, we simply call in a transporting unit as needed and either transport with them if critically needed, or let the standard ALS crew from our department handle it after they arrive.

We've had a couple high profile cardiac arrest saves at events the last few years, so more and more events are mandating that we are there for coverage.
 
For our small events we will just staff an EMT with gear. For our largest events we staff bike teams, golf carts, ambulances, a small bus, mobile dispatch center, several RNs, several Doctors, along with data entry people.
 
In the city, fire does most outdoor, large gathering events. They have a big trailer, tents, gators, the works. They usually do BP/BGL screenings as well as a part of their community health program. It's a tad annoying that they don't have AMR participate, there are no extra ambulances on during big events as a result. AMR does most of the scheduled arena type events however.

We don't really have any other groups providing EMS locally.
 
We do events almost exclusively.

For small events we have our own communications, are hired directly by the event, and use 911 resources if a patient needs to be transported.

For big events, we work closely with the fire department (and in one case are technically hired by them) to have seamless radio communications. We provide carts, bike teams, and aid stations. One fire department provides additional bike teams. An ambulance company will typically provide more bike teams, carts, and ALS transport. Seamless under ICS.
 
We do every major event in Galveston
 
In town events we cover with the local agency, this is usually a one or two ambulance type of event. For larger preplanned events, like the NJ Marathon, Warped Tour, July 4. our county activates a response plan that incorporates multiple towns EMS and the State EMS Task Force.This is an agency that provides specialized response apparatus when requested.
 
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