A Recent Question - Here Is Your Answer
Rickey StokesViewed: 8302
Posted by: RStokes
[email protected]
334-790-1729
Date: Aug 24 2018 1:44 PM
HOUSTON COUNTY: Recently a few people have asked why does a ambulance meet a fire truck for fireman to board the ambulance?
There are three levels of medic service personnel on ambulances and some fire trucks:
(1) Basic Emergency Medical Technicians
(2) Advanced Emergency Medical Technicians
(3) Paramedics
Each level has a level of service they are able to provide, with Paramedic being the highest degree of level of service.
If the EMS calls, only about 8% ( estimate ) of those patients require Advanced Emergency Medical Technicians or Paramedics. The Basic Emergency Medical Technician is capable of handling that medical issue without calling on the higher degree.
Dothan Fire units have Paramedics. Some of Pilcher Ambulance has Advanced or Paramedic. Some of the volunteer EMS have Advanced or Paramedics.
But a lot of the volunteer ambulances have Basic Emergency Medical Technicians. Based on two primary factors; (1) what the 911 Center reports to the responding ambulance of the nature of the medical call they are responding to, and/or (2) what the ambulance finds when they arrive on the scene, they see the immediate need or potential need for a higher level of service.
If a ambulance is dispatched to "patient not breathing and persons on the scene are initiating CPR", and the ambulance unit only has Basic Emergency Medical Technicians on it, they will immediately mutual aid Dothan Fire to respond to have the higher level of medical service, Which this higher level can start IV's, give medications, etc. much like the emergency room staff of the hospital.
So when you see a ambulance meeting a fire engine and stopping for the fireman to enter the ambulance, it is because the service providers on the scene feel a higher level of service might be needed.
BUT, that basic service provider gets the patient hooked up to the monitors, loaded into the ambulance and rolling towards the hospital to meet the fire engine. And you can bet the EMS provider in the ambulance is doing all they can do to make sure everything possible that can be done for the patient is being done.
It is the Basic EMS provider that recognizes the need for a higher level of training and makes that happen.
Someone recently asked why the ambulance stop, could they not handle it? The answer is NO. It is because the level of service the patient needed was higher then their training, which is in only about 8% of the total EMS calls.
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