N.J. Assembly committee approves bill regulating EMS services

[island emt]

In Joisey the First aid squads are BLS only. most have several fancy ambulances and a couple officer mobiles set up for fast response, or going out for pizza & beer. :-{

ALS is provided by hospital based Paramedics that respond to intercept with the BLS crews.

It really is a strange system they have and it's pretty much the same whether in the big cities or in more rural NJ, Yes there are some fairly rural areas in the western part of the state , once you get away from the coast.

[paramedicmike]

There are some pretty rural areas in the south end of the state, too.

[scratrat]

There are some pretty rural areas in the south end of the state, too.

You leave the Villas out of this!!!

[scratrat]

In Joisey the First aid squads are BLS only. most have several fancy ambulances and a couple officer mobiles set up for fast response, or going out for pizza & beer. :-{

ALS is provided by hospital based Paramedics that respond to intercept with the BLS crews.

It really is a strange system they have and it's pretty much the same whether in the big cities or in more rural NJ, Yes there are some fairly rural areas in the western part of the state , once you get away from the coast.

I actually kind of like the chase car concept. I moved to Florida for a bit and they one one paramedic and one EMT on every truck. The pro to that was EVERY call was guarenteed a paramedic. The downside was you were dispatched to everything, including the stubbed toe. In that system, we did a LOT of training, but I still think my medic skills were lacking due to lack of volume of critical calls. But back here, you are (supposedly) only dispatched to life threats so you're theroratically sent on more critical calls and thus your paramedic skills are put to the test I think.

[island emt]

We have a Paramedic interceptor available to us here also. They are auto dispatched to certain calls,ie chest pain ,arrests diff breathing, major trauma etc.

Most of the time they rely on the ILS & BLS folks to call if they need them on other calls. It's been working great for us for about 12 years.

The interceptor covers about a 30 mile stretch of the coast with multiple small services on the peninsula's and islands. They work for the hospital on the mainland.

Due to our weather, we don't use the helicopter flight service very often. Often below flight minimums here with fog or low cloud cover.

I'm with you on having a medic on every truck for every call. A waste of education and knowledge for a large percentage of the everyday calls we field.

[emtdennis]

I am sooo glad I work in New York!!!!!!! At minimum an EMT and driver on all calls. Active ALS team, strict standards for anyone on the rig. I "Heart" NY

[scratrat]

Yeah, it seemed a catch 22. It was nice for the citizens to be guarenteed a higher eduated professional on every single call, but after 2 years working there, I think I could count on one hand the number of tubes I had!!

[RuralKSEMS]

In KS, all ambulances, volley or paid, are required to have 2 certified attendants on bored with one being at least the level of an EMT (if a nurse runs, the other attendant must be an EMT or higher). All services, regardless of who runs them, are under the KDOT and KSBEMS rules and regs. We aren't, however, required to have back round checks though I don't think that it's a bad thing in the least. Our AOs (drivers) are all CPR certified so they can help if we need them to. I think all or at least a good portion of our fire fighters are CPR certified if we need them at a scene. The only ones that don't have certification or a license of some sort are the firefighters but they do a great job at helping us at the scenes that we need help at. I can't believe you can have an operation like that in NJ. That's just asking for trouble. They should all at least have some worth while training.