There's a lot of EMS agencies doing SSM. As for Fire. It seems like it would be kinda nasty moving entire engine companies around all over the place. Moving one rig and a couple of folks around is easier. Fire response times increase when there are multiple incidents in the same area. Make that three+ and everything goes to pot! The good news, multiple fire incidents don't happen in the same areas with the incredible regularity that multiple EMS incidents do.
Case in point: Riggs Station 31 (Atwater, CA) has SSM stats that show that when one call goes down there's a high likelyhood that another will go down shortly thereafter before the next station can meet response times. It's spooky but it's true. So Riggs tries to keep two Riggs at the station, even though they may go hours without a call. When one happens, another very, very, often does.
EMSA uses System Status stats to change the posting model to meet historic load requirments.
As for stress on the crews...
At Riggs where I used to work they mixed SSM and 24-hour stations and it's a major nightmare. Getting toned up at 0200 because the status dropped and you needed to go cover a post along the side of a highway for 5 hours.
Now, take SSM and mixed it with HPEMS & 12-hour shifts it makes sense. It works for AMR ALCO. It works here too. Sure, we get crazy busy sometimes, at the moment more often then not. Even though I've been here only a couple of months, and my street time at this point is limited, there's a rhythm to it. Sometimes you get into a posting loop, but most of the time you run about a call an hour. EMSA East gives us 20 minute drop times and with the Medusa Tablets it isn't hard to make that.
I'd much rather run 12 calls in 12 hours then 10 in 24 hours. Back problems? We're often not in the trucks enough to worry about it!
I like to run calls, always have. I was wrecked during most of my 24-hour shifts at Riggs. The 12-hour shifts sucked because they were either near or after a 24-hour shift.
Sure, I'm still a tater, but I'm already happy with my choice to come to work here. EMSA East is something special. I left California to come here. We're staffing up to increase the number of trucks on the street too. P+ really seems to take retention seriously and they know that staffing up is key to doing that.
I finished that academy last week. There's a reason why EMSA folks have an attitude, we're trained well and given great equipment and protocols to get our jobs done. The academy was kind of like Paramedic graduate school. It wasn't as much about following protocols, we did that in the first 2 weeks. It was about thinking, feeling and knowing what to do. I thanked the folks that put it together. I think that every service that uses 12-lead and ETCO2 cap should be trained the way we are. Of the paramedics I know that have 12-lead in their protocols I know very few that really know how to read them and don't just read the top. Before everyone jumps down my throat I know there's a lot of folks out there that know how to really read 12-leads, but how many services in the US really take the time to train their folks on 12-lead and ETCO2 cap. A handful at best. EMSA is one of that handful.
--- Nancy