1. Schedule

According to Larry Bradshaw and other members of Local 790, there are anywhere from 40-70 PM’s that don’t really want to be firefighters and would much rather do what they love doing: run ALS calls on ambulances. These PM’s don’t want to work the 24-hour shift. Let’s identify them and allow them to work 4-10’s or 3-12’s (radio’s shift). Remove the busiest ambulances (1, 3, 36, 41, 7) from the stations (and the 24-hour shifts) and staff them with these people. Presto! The scheduling problem is addressed, and so is a lot of the workload issue. These ambulances account for the heaviest workload, and by switching them off 24’s they will not need diversion status, allowing these 5 rigs to run 20 to 25 calls each during a 24-hour period. Most of the other ambulances average about 8 to 12 calls a day, busy but manageable.

2. Workload

I believe a lot of the workload issues would be addressed with the changes above. According to Chief Shortall, about 200 to 225 calls a day are EMS generated. As stated above, 5 ambulances times 20 calls equal 100 calls. That would leave another 15 24-hour ambulances a 100 to 125 calls to divide. That averages 8.3 calls per rig. EMS has stated their goal was to average 10 calls per day per ambulance.

3. ALS Engines

The major goal of this merger was ALS engines. However, ALS engines should not be implemented by reducing service on the ambulances. There are enough PM’s in the system right now to staff 10 ALS engines and accomplish the issues above without having to reduce ambulances to 1 and 1 staffing, and having ALS engines going all over town to cover for lack of paramedics.

There are approximately 240 PM’s in the system right now, not including RC’s. Let’s do the math!

For 5 10- or 12-hour ambulances: 5 times 10 PM’s per rig equal 50 PM’s.

For a 24-hour ambulances (4.3 is the number used to calculate the number of PM’s needed to staff a 24-hr position): 4.3 times 15 times 2 equal 129.

For ALS engines: 10 ALS engines 4.3 times 10 equal 43.

The grand total: 50 plus 129 plus 43 equal 222.

As you can see the numbers are there.

As more medics are trained, more ALS engines can come online.

With respect to the laterals, it’s understandable that they want to get on the engines. They’re firefighters, but what also needs to be understood is that they were hired specifically (outside of civil service) because of a need for paramedics on ambulances, not engines. The firefighters who came through the traditional hiring process should not have to move off an engine (and onto the ambulance) so they can get on it. If it wasn’t for the need for paramedics, they wouldn’t have been hired in the first place. It is unacceptable if EMS did not thoroughly explain the situation to them before they transferred, but that isn’t the firefighters’ fault. Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of these FF’s, have already been forced onto BLS ambulances, or are doing time at radio, something the laterals will not be subject.

I could be wrong but this seems like a pretty simple plan. If EMS wants to try a pilot program, why not try this one? At least it addresses the issues with real solutions, and does not reduce current levels of service. This is a tough issue and not everybody will be happy but I believe this would be a step in the right direction.

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