Trouble brewing for CMED.

[izzyj4]

i heard on there the other day one of the East Haven Chiefs was upset seeing how he did not know were his AMR car was. He was ready to go mutual aid

Confirmed and true about EHFD, they wanted an ETA on the ambulance and AMR wouldn't give EHFD an actual one. Now I don't know if they (meaning C-MED) tried calling the AMR rig on MED-10 or went through AMR dispatch. There are a few different ways the story went though, obviously.

Here is a old dirty secret. AMR or any other private ambulance service for that matter used to stack calls for priorities and multiple times AMR (using them since they were the most prevalent in the area) said they had a unit "assigned to a call" but in actuality, they were either on a transfer or still off loading a patient at a hospital. I can telly one thing, any time in the past you heard North Branford, Branford, Derby, Ansonia, Seymour or Bethany going into another town or West Haven (Rescue 1 or Rescue 25), Milford or New Haven was transporting to the hospital, 9 times out of 10 it was because AMR did not have a rig available with in the allotted response mandated time frame.

It will be interesting when the checks and balances are gone and there will be refusals to cover mutual aid now.

Also, rumors are persistent that some towns are actually looking to move away from having AMR being thier primary transport service. Might be some interesting times ahead.

Also Ansonia voted to send AMRS' dispatch up to NW Public Safety, fire is going as well. Looks like Bethany and Derby may follow. Not sure what Shelton EMS is doing, they can either go to SW C-MED, Shelton PD dispatch (who also handles FD) or NW C-MED too. Firebuff66 would have more info on that end I believe, Jon can you comment?

 

[izzyj4]

This is Great news!! The towns that have had to suffer with horrible dispatching over the years might get a chance to fix things and get quality dispatching again.
AMR is no where near the correct fix, but 1 thing at a time.

I feel sorry for the Dispatchers that work there, They have been handcuffed with bad procedures, training, management and direction for decades

You can take a look at other CMEDs like North West, LCD, Valley Shore, KX who have better procedures, training, management and direction and are doing much better.

Having worked there an knowing how things were handled, I can agree with you. A lot of us and the dispatcher currently there do take great pride in their job. However the way things were handle with protocols and procedures really made it the "wild wild west" sometimes. Yes, you can have a good personality on the air and be helpful when pleasant, but also too you can't allow units to walk all over you or be rude (same with the dispatcher too). A line has to be drawn.

Unfortunately on of my biggest gripes back in the day was how we dispatch the different towns 4 or 5 different ways. You look at all the other regional centers in CT and they dispatch fire and EMS the exact same way for each individual agency!!!! You know how many times I dispatch an agency like one of the others and got spoke too because they "don't follow that way you need to do it this way instead". Used to really $%(*^&)(*&*)(* me off.

Its not a hard thing to do once some initiative is taken.

 

[Kitn1mcc]

Were do all the master Boxes in the Valley Ring into

 

[izzyj4]

Were do all the master Boxes in the Valley Ring into

Ansonia, Derby and Shelton (mostly downtown if they are still in service) have their own Gamewell telegraph systems. Each one rings into their own PD and the firehouses all have bells and tapes.

Seymour removed theirs from service well over 10 years ago.

 

[Firebuff66]

Ansonia, Derby and Shelton (mostly downtown if they are still in service) have their own Gamewell telegraph systems. Each one rings into their own PD and the firehouses all have bells and tapes.

Seymour removed theirs from service well over 10 years ago.

I think Sheltons are all gone now also.

Ansonia just voted to go to Northwest for Fire & EMS and Shelton Voted to leave South Central. Derby is soon to follow by the looks of it. I hear Bethany is looking but noting solid yet...Bethany is a PSAP so that could be a win for a dispatch center

 

[N1SQB]

Everyone has issues at one time or another. Even Northwest Public Safety.
I-Team investigates dispatch center - WFSB 3 Connecticut
Hopefully, those who switch over will be in good hands! My biggest fear, as it relates to AMR, is that as is usually the case, until someone gets seriously hurt or possibly even killed, nobody will get the "real" picture. All AMR is, is a big money, power hungry bully. They promise a mountain but deliver a mole hill. Anyone who has ever worked the EMS system, or monitored it intensely, will understand the real truth that lies hidden within AMRs' corporate structure! Don't take my word for it. Look at the date of this article and the issues it talks about:http://articles.courant.com/1996-08...medical-response-service-network-nonemergency Corporate greed, take overs, buy outs, are right up their alley! While they are not the only ones, they are by far the main ones here in CTs' EMS system. We are dealing with peoples' lives here folks.Those that put it all on the line day in and day out, transporting, saving lives, dispatching etc. and the people they work so hard to serve and save. All in the name of corporate greed! THAT is the real truth behind all this mess. People who did not care enough to make changes needed to keep a valuable system up to date, and others looking to benefit from it. My heart goes out to all of you who have lost your jobs over this unfortunate mess. CMED has yet to understand, the priceless service you all provided, that they just simply threw away. Sadly, they may never understand! Today, it's CMED, tomorrow it may be FD or PD. Corporate decision makers worry more about the almighty dollar than the lives and services that emergency personnel provide. When you start to look at emergency responders as disposable commodities, we have reached a pathetic and deplorable state in this country, that will hurt more than help in the end.. CMED has YET to understand this, but trust you me, they will!



Manny

 

[Kitn1mcc]

i think sheltons system is still up and working

 

[N1SQB]

i think sheltons system is still up and working

It should be! All that is going to change is who dispatches the calls! What I would like to know is what is going to happen with VEMS Medics!

Manny

 

[fdscan]

I agree with Manny regarding the AMR issue.

I think at this point it's all boiling down to what is the best option for the individual towns, for some AMR may be the best way to go, but for some, maybe NW CMED or other regions may be better.

What I'm curious is, if CMED NH should fall, will cars in the region still use those frequencies for everything? Will AMR use them to dispatch? Forgive me if this has already been asked/answered, I'm just curious

 

[APX7500X2]

It should be! All that is going to change is who dispatches the calls! What I would like to know is what is going to happen with VEMS Medics!

Manny

Northwest will be dispatching VEMS

 

[N1SQB]

Northwest will be dispatching VEMS

Thanks APX! Any timeline on this?

Manny

 

[Firebuff66]

Thanks APX! Any timeline on this?

Manny

Per the information we got in Shelton all Primary dispatch service's will stop October 15th 2014.

So I'm guessing you will see Ansonia, Derby, Shelton, Bethany and VEMS all move by then at the latest.

From what I see in the paper it looks like Ansonia will be soon

 

[N1SQB]

Thanks for the info! We will just have to stay tuned til it all goes down I suppose!

Manny

 

[PJH]

One of the things that hasn't been brought up yet - and it was a very big deal (that I was involved in at the time) was the requirement that the state brought out for Emergency Medical Dispatching. OSET mandated that PSAPs train their staff in EMD or contract/transfer the EMS call to a qualified secondary PSAP to do the EMD and code the call for the responding EMS service.

At the time, most towns and cities did not have the dispatch staff/call takers to do EMD, and many contracted with the CMEDs or regional dispatch centers to do it. Many mid to small town police departments only run with one, sometimes two dispatchers. When taking an EMS call, then EMD'ing it, no one would be available to take subsequent calls (hard enough for some calls for service).

We were pretty adamant that we did not have the manpower and time to do EMD. I will admit at the time, we were not given all the information on what EMD was all about, and the flexibility that could be had in the system (National Academy EMD is what NCCMED went with). Had we known what I know about it now, I might have went with the training for everyone.

AMR at the time was buying up a bunch of commercial company's with the expectation of changes in the health care law, and when it didn't happen (forget what the changes were expected to be), they took a huge financial hit. I will also defend AMR to a point as how they operate. AMR is managed differently region to region. AMR in the CT/Northeast is operated much differently than it is out west.

In the Rocky Mountain region, they are deeply involved (in a good way) with local EMS responders, run community first aid/CPR classes, pay off duty paramedics overtime if they act as a medic for rural ambulance companies/fire departments (and fully equip them) etc. So, evil AMR isn't always evil AMR - depending on where you live.

Either way, unless the patch on the medic's arm states "Town of" or "City of" then its a commercial service which is in business of making money - which is always the bottom line.

There are many areas of the country where there are no such things as "CMEDs". Local EMS talking simplex to the hospital by radio, cell phone or the such works very well. You don't need a super complex 10 med channel system to make things work. Sometimes you do. More idea's people have the more complicated and overly expensive things get.

 

[APX7500X2]

Rumor has it that South West C-Med is having issues now also.

I guess they have a bunch of staffing issues and the system is having huge coverage issues.

We will see how this plays out

 

[joetnymedic]

Not sure if anyone else has heard this but both I and manny have heard almost like radio techs doing some type of work on sc cmeds freqs. Even this am heard them asking both a hunters unit as well as another unit ho they were able to hear them. Any possibility that the other cmeds may be hooking up to sc towers?

 

[izzyj4]

Didn't hear that one Joe.

I did hear that a NH dispatcher got the recall back to work. He posted it on his private FB page. Wonder if there was a second also?

 

[Kitn1mcc]

i have noticed the chatter has picked up as well

 

[cbear14]

What's new in the CMED New Haven situation? Does any one know what channel CMED Northwest uses to dispatch Valley EMS units or is it all done their own dept frequencies?

 

[N1SQB]

For the most part yes, they use the agency's own FCC licensed frequency.


Manny