The madness of idling?

[Amhet1]

Ok, We can idle, freeze, or roast.... your choice.

The other option is buy carbon credits from Algore and the UN.

[medic61]

While doing extensive research as to why our brand new 2006 Ford diesel ambulances run like crap and spend as much time in the repair shop as they do in-service, I read several articles by mechanics that said it is very hard on the new diesel engines to idle at low speed and will result in shorter engine life and increased repair costs. Their recommendations were to always shut the engine off, when that isn't feasible the recommendation is to have the vehicle in high idle.

As to SSM, other than increasing staffing during peak use times, I think it's BS. The small POSSIBLE benefits are not worth the DEFINITE wear and tear on the crew members and vehicles! What if that massive MI patient ends up being across the street from the station (or what ever) you left to go "on stand by"? It can- and does- happen too!

While it makes sense to try to be centrally located, I don't think it is reasonable to expect that there will always be an ambulance within a 4 minute response time. As a citizen, I have to realize that there are times that I may have to wait. Even in the emergency department, I may not get seen right away if there are other patients tying up the staff resources.

[Capman]

After 2 years, I'm glad you found something that stimulated a post out of you medic61. LMAO

I personally do not care if it's hard on engines to let them idle. If my service wants me to stage, then they deal with the consequences. It's that simple!

As for central locations, the ambulance will never be in an ideal spot 100% of the time. The key term is "central location". This means that it is in an optimal position to equalize the response time for all locations, not just some of the locations. so, you can save the "what if the call is across the street from the station" scenarios!

[EMDP2081]

I work straight nights (8p-8a or 11p-7a) so my opinion is different since i dont have as much of that ball of fire to deal with but our service is a touch different. We function 100% SSM (ordinance says we must make it to scene within 10:59 of our comm ctr receiving the call 98% of the time or we lose our ALS license) but out of our 19 posting locations, we have 3 street corners that we post at. One is out SSM Level 1 location, one added when we reach SSM Level 18 and the last is a pretty common location, SSM Level 8 i think. Our physical locations vary from Fire Stations to Police Sub Stations to 2 EMS specific locations we have. At night, many of us dont like to awaken the firefighters sleeping in the station house by backing into their garage and waking up their FMO, so many of us choose to sit on the apron and roll the windows down and kill the engine. We dont kill the engine because of environmental concerns, but THE ENGINE MAKES IT THAT MUCH HARDER TO SLEEP. Even if i am not going to sleep, i still kill it because if i cna save my organization money, maybe that goodwill will translate into continued success of my organization and also a bigger pay raise next time our union negotiates... but that is just my 2 cents

[HellsBells]

As for central locations, the ambulance will never be in an ideal spot 100% of the time. The key term is "central location". This means that it is in an optimal position to equalize the response time for all locations, not just some of the locations. so, you can save the "what if the call is across the street from the station" scenarios!

If the company knows where these central locations are, why the hell havent they built stations there? This curbside deployment is BS shoved down our throats by companys that are too cheap to spend the money they should for proper EMS resourses.

At night, many of us dont like to awaken the firefighters sleeping in the station house by backing into their garage and waking up their FMO, so many of us choose to sit on the apron and roll the windows down and kill the engine.

Yeah, these guys get pretty cranky if they don't get a full eight hours per shift.