buckeyedoc

Most departments, at least around my neck of the woods, prefer red vehicles to any other color. The studies from a few years ago said that red was the hardest to see color and that lime yellow/green is the best visible. I have yet to see an emergency vehicle without some type of reflective material. However, I don't feel that enough of the reflective striping and letters is used. There have been several departments lately that have gone with the reflective red/yellow chevrons on the rear of the vehicles.

That is a very nice site. Although the background is black, all of the graphics work with it. Very nice. I am impressed that the flames at the top are static and not animated. Very well done. Doc

Very true. It is such a PITA.

I design websites as a side hobby. I've done a few for departments. In my humble opinion, the website svfd.net is not a good example. Let me clarify that statement by saying, their content is great, but their design is all wrong. It is too busy. Here is what I would do. 1. Keep it simple (not boring, but simple) 2. Make sure that everything is readable. The buttons at the top of the sceen of svfd.net are too small. 3. Use a left-hand menu. Most people don't want to search for the menu. Out of habit, people tend to look to the left of the screen (seeing as how we read left to right) 4. Use a clean font (verdana, arial, tahoma or something from that class). Times New Roman is not a good font for web because it appears jagged. Use the same font for the entire site. 5. Despite any desire you have, DO NOT put auto-loading music/dispatch tones on the page. Not only does it degrade the time to load the page, if someone has their volume turned up loud, the tones/music will blow them out and will probably close the page and not come back. 6. Maintain uniformity on the entire site. Don't use 10 different layout designs for the site. Find one, maybe two, and stick with them for the whole site. Your viewers will thank you for it. 7. Don't load the site with a ton of animated *.gif files. I know they're fun to watch, but it takes longer to load. 8. Don't use full-size images if you don't have to. I know that you'll want some larger photos/graphics on there, and that's fine. If you have a photo gallery, WHICH YOU SHOULD, thumbnail the images. That is not an all-inclusive list, but just some things to think about. If you need/want anything else, PM or e-mail me. I'd be happy to help in whatever way I can. Doc

I don't think there should be a minimum age limit for paramedics. HOWEVER, I think there should be a minimum number of years worked as an EMT-B/I. There is a paramedic program around here, I can't remember which one, that requires 2 years active experience with an EMS agency with documented (and verifiable) 1500 hours per year of work. I think that minimum requirements should be set, but not necessarily minumum ages. I have a 24 year old partner who is as immature as they come. She's a good Basic, but her immaturity has led me to request a new partner. Just my $0.02. Doc

I hold cards in both. PEPP is definitely geared more towards pre-hospital (hence the name). I had to be PALS in order to work in the ER. I took my PEPP at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital. We were able to use the pediatic human simulator (Cincinnati Children's Pediatric Human Patient Simulator). That has to be one of the most awesome things I've ever been able to do. If there is a facility near y'all that has it, please make the trip to do it. It is amazing (IMHO).

Donkey Schlong! Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Same here. I know I'll live forever. Lucky me!!!

Here's a post I did a little while back. I would be interested in trading patches. I will PM you my address. http://www.emtcity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.ph...&highlight= Doc.

OH! So close. It's actually brand names of salad dressing. Man were you close. The person below me hates lime Jello

Well, I used to have my truck (see my webpix). After we had the baby, we traded it in for a 2006 Pontiac Montana SV6. We have 3 kids now and the truck just wasn't big enough and sure the heck wasn't fuel efficient enough. Our other car is a 2004 Chevy Impala. We are also restoring a 1968 Impala convertible. BTW, if anyone knows where I can get a convertible top switch for it, please let me know. :help: :help:

Here are the requirements for Ohio. http://www.ems.ohio.gov/rules/100203/4765-18-03.pdf

The Sprinter is made by Mercedes (I believe). I believe they offer a turbo diesel 4 and 6 cylinder. I do know for a fact that they offer a dually model of the Sprinter. I know that FedEx, UPS, DHL, and a ton of expedited freight companies are buying up the Sprinters.

Like I said, it was 2nd hand information. It could be the fact that he was a bit disgruntled. I agree with Dust that it would be a SERIOUS misallocation of resources to have a medic not be permitted to perform ALS interventions. Most of the big cities around here have some type of residency requirements. You have to live in Dayton city limits in order to be a city employee. Cincinnati requires you to live in Hamilton County. Many others have a time limit....ie. you have to live within 20 minutes HQ or 10 nautical miles from city bldg/HQ. There are others who don't care how far away you live. Some cities that require you to live within city limits give tax breaks to their employees.

After reading this post (and posting), I went to our billing dept. and asked what the collection rate was. The Supervisor (and a friend of mine) said that they have about an 88-90% collection rate. That is well above average, but we have some great billing clerks. Not to mention that we have 8 hours of paperwork training every 6 months. Paperwork issues can get you placed on administrative leave or even terminated (after quite a few). They are sticklers on paperwork. It's a great team effort.

I've seen a couple of these running around. A dept. close to here is testing one to see if it will fit their needs. They are currently running Type I Medium Duties and Type III's on E-450's. I can't stand these things. I think they are ugly and from what I hear, not a whole lot of room in the back. Never seen one inside myself. Just thought I'd get y'all's input.

Dust, You are not permitted to perform ALS interventions on a Boston EMS bus. You operate as a Basic until you go through their internal training/testing program. I have a friend in Middleboro, MA who is a paramedic. He's always wanted to be on Boston EMS, but when he found out how it worked, he went and joined FDNY EMS. He said that it was taking, on average, 2-3 years for a paramedic slot to open up in Boston. He did say that some of the medics were working in hospitals and other local squads to keep up their ALS skills. That being said, I have never applied for Boston and this is second hand information. However, he is a rather credible source. I'd take his word for it.

My wife and I (including her mom, dad, brother, uncle, aunt, and 2 cousins) all run for the same dept. They had all come over for a cookout one day a couple of weeks ago. We were all sitting around the picnic table when the pager went off. My wife, her mom and I were on call for the medic. We were dispatched for a 34 yo female who was having an allergic reaction to insulin. It took us about 5 extra minutes to respond from lauging how arses off. Good thing we live close to the firehouse. The dispatcher, who also works with us, gave us additional information and said that the pt. took her insulin and is now having an allergic reaction to it. She has been on insulin for the past 3 years. We got there and there was nothing wrong. No signs of anaphylaxis. She admitted to us that her boyfriend left her the day before and she just wanted some attention.

Thanks. That is something to consider. My partner at work owns a body shop/car repair shop on the side. He's been doing that for about 15 years. He and I have yet to sit down and seriously discuss the maintenance aspect of everything. We've thought about that. They use Crown Vics for their patrol vehicles. We would like to go with something bigger. We are currently looking at a Fleet Lease. That will ensure that warranties are current. That will save on maintenance/repair costs. I have a meeting with a potential "investor" next Friday morning. It is a local business man who I've known for about 20 years. He is very charitable and is very civic minded. I presented my business plan to him several weeks ago. He was impressed with it. I've talked with his brother about it a bit and he seems interested in financing us. If I know him, he'll give us the start up money with a nominal interest rate. We'll see. Either way, business is business and personal is personal and they won't mix. Wish me luck.

Dustdevil, Ok, let me fill y'all in as to the plans. There are currently 4 BLS only squads in this county (to be named later due to ongoing negotiations). They have 2 hospital based paramedic transport (Type II's) that will intercept if needed. Well, they charge the county a small fortune for each run they intercept on. Not to mention they bill the patient. I have been in contact with the local EMA for a few months to establish an intercept service in the county that will be dispatched on all runs that medics might be needed. We won't respond on stubbed toes and things like that. We are working on a monthly "fee" that the county will pay regardless of the number of runs. We will then bill the patient accordingly. The monthly "fee" won't be all that much in comparison to what they are being charged by the hospital based. The county EMA wants to eliminate the hospital based medics all together, but without any options, they have yet to do this. I have submitted my business plan (of over 125 pages) to area banks and financial supporters. I have a real good friend who is a business man and likes to diversify (if you know what I mean). He is going to have the vehicles we want purchased, striped, equiped and the emergency lighting packages installed. We will then begin paying him back for the vehicles 18 months after first day of business. The county is responsible (and have already agreed) for providing us a "station" to house the vehicle and the crew. Most crews will only run w/ one medic per station. We plan on staring with 3 "stations" and increase based on need.

Touché, Dustdevil. We had an instructor that did use part of their footage from the one when there is a tornado and there are hundreds of people in the gymnasium with only 1-2 medics. If I recall (and I might be wrong...it's been known to happen) he did get authorization from DHC to use their material. I have an e-mail out to him to see if 1) he still has the material and 2) he did get approval to use their material. As soon as I hear back, I will post his reply.

Nice, my old department ran in Imaplas. They are nice and comfortable. I have an Impala as my POV. Although, one has nothing to do with the other. We had a couple of used PD Crown Vics and they were POS's. They were that way before we got them.

I run in a Liberty now and I kind of like it. It's small enough, yet there's room enough for all the necessary medic supplies. We carry 3 of the foldable backboards. They are nice. I can get 4 of the Liberty's for $19,200 each. I am setting up a committee for the decision making processes. Thanks for all of y'all's input. Doc

I did a lot of searching about billing details w/ Medicare. As long as the area that is being covered by the paremedic intercept only offers BLS coverage, the interecept may bill for services, but not mileage.

Our service bills as follows: $850 for ALS (paramedic) plus the maximum per mile charge allowed by Medicare (not sure what that is) $750 for ALS (Intermediate) plus mileage $650 for BLS (with O2) $600 for BLS (no O2) We have several frequent flyers who never really need a medic (geez, that doesn't happen does it). We are implementing a clause that if you call the squad X amount of times in a given time frame, we charge $150 for the call.