Live saving drugs pulled from fire truck in Naples, Florida

EMS is an easy target for the fire department. Hell, cops can get there faster, use smaller more fuel efficient vehicles and don't need 4 to a car. Hows that for a savings? How would the fire department feel about that? I don't think it would go over well because we are talking jobs and funds, not patient care. EMS at the ALS level should be provided by a single mission EMS agency, not as an aside to fighting fires or locking folks up. :wacko:
 
boingo said:
EMS is an easy target for the fire department. Hell, cops can get there faster, use smaller more fuel efficient vehicles and don't need 4 to a car. Hows that for a savings? How would the fire department feel about that? I don't think it would go over well because we are talking jobs and funds, not patient care. EMS at the ALS level should be provided by a single mission EMS agency, not as an aside to fighting fires or locking folks up. :wacko:
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How busy is the cop shop compared to the fire station? Do you want to wait 25 minutes for a cop to show up on an EMS call?
 
BossyCow said:
How busy is the cop shop compared to the fire station? Do you want to wait 25 minutes for a cop to show up on an EMS call?
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No, I wouldn't want to wait 25 minutes, but just because the fire is busy doing nothing is no reason for them to dabble in EMS. Let them direct traffic, man crosswalks, or shovel asphalt, all of those functions are necessary and don't require constant experience to excel at. I know it doesn't get them headlines or stroke their ego's, but medicine has NOTHING to do with fighting fires, much like law enforcement has NOTHING to do with medicine or fire fighting. How come you don't see fire departments trying to dabble in law enforcement? Because the Police departments are well established and just as politically connected. EMS is not, and as a result tends to be at the mercy of the fire/IAFF agenda.
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End of rant.
 
cvb7873 said:
This system, which everyone is quick to defend, is years behind those in place on the east coast of Florida. According to our protocols, a fire medic is no longer able to push antidysrhythmics to a patient in V-fib. We can not place a patient on a breathing treatment when they are suffering from asthma or COPD. We can no longer treat a patient suffering from chest pain with anything other then 02. We no longer can use Versed to treat seizures, or before we cardiovert. We can no longer give D50 to a patient with a diabetic emergency. How is this a step foward?
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Stop with making it sound like the patients aren't getting any care. They still have ALS from EMS.

Stick to fighting fires well and don't screw that up while trying to take on another profession that is medical. Don't get your own firefighters killed because you want to win a peeing match with a doctor while letting your fire fighting skills go to crap.
 
So, because some systems are crappy, we need to paint all fire department based systems with the same brush. If you have an issue with a crappy department, deal with it.. but to broaden that into the assumption that all fire based EMS systems are crappy isn't logical.
 
BossyCow said:
So, because some systems are crappy, we need to paint all fire department based systems with the same brush. If you have an issue with a crappy department, deal with it.. but to broaden that into the assumption that all fire based EMS systems are crappy isn't logical.
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Over the past 30 years since we've been mandating all FFs to be Paramedics and EMS Paramedics to become FFs if they want a job, I've seen alot of half arsed so called fire medics. It is no more fair to the professional FF than it is to the professional Paramedic. Not all FFs want to be Paramedics and shouldn't have to be. Unfortunately, the goal to have as many Fire medics on every truck has weakened the FDs in many ways.

I would prefer my loved ones not to be put in danger because of people who want to do it all but truthfully can barely do one thing well enough to be called a professional at it. Thus, they work for Fire only departments even though they had once been "fire medics" themselves. They understood the responsibities of doing fire fighting correctly. They also knew that even though most of the "skills" of a medic are relatively easy and it only takes a 700 hour certificate to get the patch, you must still have some desire beyond the patch and the name "fire medic" to do justice to the Paramedic profession.

For many of these "fire medics" it is an ego trip and has nothing to do with patient care. If they were told they would split the department into Fire and EMS as some departments have, which side do you think the majority of them would head? I seriously doubt it would be toward the ambulance.
 
Bottom line, that crew :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored: up, and now they're paying for it. It is their responsibility to know their tools, regardless of if it is a drug or the jaws, inside and out, when they can't do that anymore, they need to step down to get training till they can.
 
cvb...don't even bother argueing...seriously, it's pointless this time, last time, and will be in the future. It's nice to see someone who is local who ACTUALLY KNOWS WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING THERE speak out (even to say similar things to me that were clear from 3000 :censored::censored::censored::censored:ing miles away) but the responce is, and always will be for some people, the same.

Pretty sad when you think about it.
 
First off, I am glad that they are actually doing something about it. Its better to take the drugs away from them, before someone makes a mistake and kills or further harms a pt.

I am not even going to get into the whole "fire department/ems" issue. I have my own thoughts about it, just as everyone else does.

So, thumbs up to the medical director on making this decision... I hope that department hires competent medics or retrains their current medics soon, so the public doesn't have to suffer from this.

Take Care,
 
triemal04 said:
cvb...don't even bother argueing...seriously, it's pointless this time, last time, and will be in the future. It's nice to see someone who is local who ACTUALLY KNOWS WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING THERE speak out (even to say similar things to me that were clear from 3000 :censored::censored::censored::censored:ing miles away) but the responce is, and always will be for some people, the same.

Pretty sad when you think about it.
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You're right, thanks. Like I said earlier, dinosaurs. We have anti-ems dinosaurs on our department, just like the anti-fire dinosaurs here.
 
There's no need to toss insults around.
 
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