new contest

[ninjaemtff]

Just for the record...a 'land line' is a phone that is hooked to the wall and requires wires to make calls....something like Ma Bell would put in your home.

Well in my home town....land-line is considered anything that you dial to contact county...."Amb xy..xy county" "go ahead county" "land line the center"

therefore we use cell phone....sorry maybe I should just shut up...

[DwayneEMTP]

I guess most of us know I don't have an EMS employer...

But if I did!

I'd pay (In all sincerity):

$500,000.00 as a consulting fee to Jack Welch (former CEO of GE) to revamp the organization.

$500,000.00 to spend in any way he chooses.

Dwayne

[Adam Swartz]

As the Local department Here in Waukee Iowa currently has a 211 thousand dollar budget I would put another 300 thousand dollars toward that so they can hire more members. I would buy them a new squad as the current one is a 96 Ford It breaks down way to much. Help them be able to afford to pay for ems training. Help make it full time and not just POC or paid on call. Increase the staff by paying for all training.

[Doug]

I would use the money to pay the health insurence and severence for the next year for all the AMR employees in my division that are losing thier jobs at the end of the year.

[nypamedic43]

I would take $500,000 and put it in an education account that bears interest. It can only be used for education, tuition, books, conferences, continuing education and the like. Anyone that shows a genuine interest in taking their certification level higher or expanding their knowledge base would be eligible to use it.

I would take $100,000 ( again in an interest bearing account)and hire someone to babysit children ( for those that have them) so that there would always be someone available to watch kids for class,clinical and field time, so that parents dont have to worry about trying to find someone that they trust to leave their kids with. They can concentrate on studying or skills practice.

I would take $200,000 to institute community involvement in public safety for children, bike rallies and give kids helmets and elbow and knee pads and teach parents the proper use of them, proper use of car seats and booster seats ( maybe even provide them for parents who cant afford them on their own for their growing kids), free CPR and First Aid classes and citizen use of AED's.

The remaining $200,000 would again go into an interest bearing account designated to help older or elderly people, who cant get help from Office of the Aging type organizations, to build wheelchair ramps (wide enough for stretchers if needed), install rails inside homes (like in bathrooms) if they need extra help to stay steady on their feet, or maybe just simple things like tacking down runner carpets and throw rugs ( we have all had the dreaded "my feet got tangled in the rug" call), buy and distibute Vials of Life or produce and distribute phone numbers from organizations that these people can call if they feel they need extra help at home, but arent necessarily candidates for nursing homes.

[Richard B the EMT]

We interrupt this contest for the following message:

Looks like a quick education for some younger people might be needed, here.

Cell phones are fancy 2 way RADIOS that automatically do something called a phone patch. The older HAM Radio operators and Shortwave Radio monitors and listeners (I am registered monitoring station KNY2SC, so I'm one of them) remember when it had to be done manually.

Cell phones CONNECT to the hard-wired telephone system via that radio signal, in the 800 to 1000 MHz range.

When older HAMs, who were mobile or isolated, used to ask another radio operator, from their radio room's telephone, to dial a number for them, and put the radio's audio over the telephone, and transmit the called person's audio back to them, that was the aforementioned "phone 'patch'".

We now return you to the contest, still in progress.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Contest ends at 2pm eastern time this coming monday.

Just a friendly reminder.

One other thing, I've already purchased the book and the mystery prize so I'm sure the winner will love the items.

[brentoli]

$1,000,000:

$300,000 for a new building. Somewhere that we don't have to put on ponchos everytime a sewer/water line breaks in the jail. A building big enough we could consolidate county communications. Fire/Police/EMS to better serve the county. A secure facility at a central location in our county. This building should be large enough to accommodate 10 - 15 dispatch consoles, a full breakroom/kitchen, and a conference center which also could be transformed into a bunk room for severe weather situations. (Being snowed in is not uncommon in the winter here).

After consolidating equipment from the various dispatch centers in the county, looking at probably a $200,000 equipment investment for the new center.

$200,000 to retrofit the current various radio systems in the county to one interoperable radiosystem. Provide accurate coverage across all parts of the county, and sufficient space for the various police agencies. Provide links to the state radio system, and adjoining counties which can be brought up by any dispatcher.

$100,000 to start an employee wellness program. On staff nurse or trainer, exercise facility, and resources for employees physical and mental health. Have you seen the size of your dispatchers ass lately?

$200,000 to the employees. Dumping the complete amount in to one year raise, would not work because there wouldn't be a guarantee to keep the same rate the following year. Would need to work out a plan where the raise could be gradually increased to the desired amount. Currently our dispatch is the lowest paid in a 7 county area.

I know everyone will argue with this, but dispatch is the backbone of any emergency response system. You either have a good effective dispatch system, or you don't. When the morale in dispatch is up, it transfers out to the road crews as well. Being able to effectively communicate with all agencies responding to a domestic disturbance, traffic accident, or commercial building explosion, is a must in any area.

[Just Plain Ruff]

ok, so far I have three finalists that I've considered as tops in their posts. I'm not saying who they are but as of today there are three that stand out.

I will give everyone ONE additional post to make their original post better.

[brentoli]

Current dispatch situation. Drawn close to scale by eyeballs. Right now we have 18 sq. ft. per dispatcher. A Normal cubicle in an office is anywhere from 8x8 to 8x12. Obviously this is detrimental on mental and physical health.

We have 4 diffrent dispatch centers in the county of 120k + people. Five diffrent radio systems, for 13 police agencies, 13 fire departments, 12 ambulance agencies, emergency management, and 3 specialty teams.

The county has 15 dispatchers, Two small towns have 4 dispatchers each, and the city has 15-20 dispatchers. All in a fragmented system not conductive to professional standards, or management.