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Apples
to Apples: A firmly entrenched EMS system
By Bob Rhoades
Rod Hale’s admonishment to compare Greenville to Sidney and Celina in
the recent Daily Advocate article is a welcome thought. Finally we’re
comparing apples to apples, well almost! Like always if we hang around
long enough, a good idea pops up.
If and when the committee goes to Sidney, the first thing they’ll see
is one of the firefighters that Greenville hired first. He left and
went to Sidney because he said the prospect of staying employed looked
a little more favorable. Indeed!
But that’s not the big deal. The big deal in both Sidney and Celina,
and St. Mary’s for that matter, that the committee will see is a firmly
entrenched EMS system. Both departments have had an EMS function for
over 25 years and probably longer than that. In Celina they will see
that they have an active volunteer corps also. Rod Hale did away with
Greenville’s.
The other thing they will see is a system much like we have in
Greenville. If a structural fire occurs, off duty personnel must be
recalled. In fact, if a medic call occurs in Celina, three personnel
are recalled automatically, every time. This is to guarantee that the
other medic can be placed in service and also that if a fire occurs
there is someone to respond on the engine. Sidney has a little bit of
leeway because they have two stations but it’s basically the same.
Piqua runs much the same as Celina, recalling men after the second
medic or an engine and medic go out back to back. Troy has a little
leeway also because they have three stations. In all cases, a
structural fire in any of these towns calls for the recall of personnel
as does multiple EMS calls at the same time.
The question then comes down to this. If we cut our forces to a 5 man
shift and we have a working fire, do we recall personnel to guarantee
that we’ll be ready for another run or to back those guys up, causing
the overtime of three or 4 firefighters or do we not call anyone in and
hope that no one else has a fire at the same time?
In the fire service, you can never plan for one event, always two. Mr.
Hale’s parting shot was a good one. Finally we’re going to compare
Greenville to another department that runs EMS. Good Job Rod! We’ll get
another committee together right away to study that!
So when the folks from Greenville motor on up to Sidney and Celina,
make sure to jot down how many guys are on a shift, how many medic runs
and fire runs they have a year, how much money the city takes in from
those medic runs and how much overtime is incurred. Then decide if we
could be paying for fire and EMS with a bit left over.
Last week a person on one of the chat boxes admonished all that we
shouldn’t allow the City of Greenville to put ambulances into service
without the people being trained. This person needs to understand first
of all that the liability of the city doing something wouldn’t like
that just isn’t likely. Secondly a medic unit in the GFD would have
trained staff. There are at least 3 levels of
certification with some of it in transition. GFD personnel trained to
the basic level could operate a medic unit.
The millage that people in the city now pay the township for EMS
coverage is around 3 mils. The city has statistics and figures that
show the city can provide the same service for 2 mils and maybe less,
thus providing the citizens of Greenville with better service, less
taxes and the same amount of personnel. Let’s go think about that for a
minute. Is that really true? They always say that figures don’t lie.
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