Wake County EMS gets Muscle Cars

[KE4ZNR]

Listen out for the new EMS vehicles on Raleigh/Wake Locution Dispatch 156.225Mhz under the callsigns:
MEDIC 91
MEDIC 92
MEDIC 93
MEDIC 94
MEDIC 95
MEDIC 96
Marshall KE4ZNR

muscle cars to reach emergencies faster

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By Michael Biesecker, Staff Writer Comment on this story
Wake’s Emergency Medical Services Department launched a new program today to bolster its fleet of ambulances with 14 specially trained paramedics deployed in souped-up Dodge Chargers.EMS Chief Skip Kirkwood said the program is the first of its kind in the nation.
The new Advanced Practice Paramedics will be dispatched to help treat the most acute patients and prevent emergencies in high-risk patient populations such as the elderly.
The new muscle cars offer the combination of speed and trunk space needed for the paramedics to respond quickly to emergencies, potentially stabilizing patients until an ambulance can arrive.
They also get far better gas mileage than ambulances, officials said.
County commissioners approved $1.5 million in new spending for the pilot program over the next year.
The added paramedics are to work staggered shifts to provide at least five additional staff members across Wake County through the busiest parts of the day. Two more will be on-duty to supplement existing EMS staffing at night.
The goal is to ensure that at least one additional, experienced paramedic is assigned to each high-risk EMS call, which often requires multiple paramedics to perform time-sensitive procedures in a short period of time.
In the past, dispatchers sometimes used two ambulances to provide the necessary number of paramedics. The new program will allow many of those patients to be treated while allowing the second ambulance to remain in service.
“We have a shortage of paramedics, both nationally and in the state of North Carolina,” said Dr. Brent Myers, Wake County’s EMS director. “This program allows us to make more efficient use of the paramedics that we do have, not only by getting the paramedics where we need them the most, but also by investing their time in prevention with the most acute patient populations that we see."
The paramedics will also evaluate, educate and provide preventive care for senior citizens at high-risk for falls and with a history of substance abuse. By improving the health and well-being of these patients, it is hoped many medical emergencies will be prevented, officials said.
Those in the new program will also seek destinations other than overcrowded emergency rooms for patients that would be better served somewhere else, such as a substance abuse treatment center or mental health facility, freeing up ambulances to make other calls.

 

[blinddog50]

WELLLL, Naturally Wake Co./ Raleigh gets the NEW stuff.
We can't the state to turn on the street lights in Charlotte.

 

[KE4ZNR]

My Buddy Jeff at Firenews.net was able to get better pics of the new
Chargers:

Firenews.net Link

Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[whitehelmet1202]

Cool idea. The blue and h-vis yellow go well together. I'm waiting for my county to start something like this, only they would have the medics riding around in a Geo Metro or something similar with a teardrop on the dash, while every supervisor under the sun gets a Ford Excursion, loaded with LEDs and all their equipment, getting 6 miles per gallon.

Gotta love paying EMS taxes. Pender is .07 per hundred for all personal property (houses, cars, mobile homes etc), and you still get an 800.00 bill for EMS to transport you 25 miles to the hospital, non-emergency of course.

Anyone know what the EMS tax rate is in Wake?

 

[hoser147]

Nice Looking Car........

 

[jeffmulter]

QRV = quick race vehicle

Looking foward to the version painted in red, with 500 gallons of foam stored where the trunk used to be.

Fire departments could even save some money by designing a racing suit that doubles as turn-out gear.

 

[N8IAA]

They look like european polieze vehicles:>P
Larry

 

[KE4ZNR]

They look like european polieze vehicles:>P
Larry

Funny you should mention that...Jeff Harkey of Firenews.net was involved with Skip Kirkwood and the rest of Raleigh/Wake EMS in the design of these new medic cars and based the design off of Battenburg markings, a checkered pattern developed in the mid-1990s in the United Kingdom.
If you asked me they did a heck of a good job with the design.
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[scannerpro]

My question is..Are they like first responders? They get there first, and start working while the EMT-B's or EMT-I's respond? And then the EMT-P hops on the rescue leaving the car and then picks it up after they return from the hospital?

 

[msigmon3306]

Per the Office of EMS: QRV = Quick Response Vehicle

 

[jthorpe]

Probably a good idea but I hope they get some extra driver training for those who operate the vehicles. At least hit the high speed over at the SHP track for a while. The current state requirement for EMT's and Firefighters doesn't even come close to what these guys will have to know if they are going to be doing high speed driving.

 

[hoser147]

My question is..Are they like first responders? They get there first, and start working while the EMT-B's or EMT-I's respond? And then the EMT-P hops on the rescue leaving the car and then picks it up after they return from the hospital?

Most I'm familiar with respond after another unit be it an engine or a squad, triage's the patient and determines the need for a Paramedic. Then the Paramedic will meet them at the scene or do an intercept at a location enroute to the hospital. That way the Paramedic is free from the Ambulance to go where they are needed. It also keeps from sending a couple of ambulances and crews to a scene. As far as the car most wont leave it sit, it will be brought to the hospital with the ambulance by another crew member so the Paramedic is free to respond to the next ALS call. Hope this helps......

 

[rocknrun]

WELLLL, Naturally Wake Co./ Raleigh gets the NEW stuff.
We can't the state to turn on the street lights in Charlotte.

Our "leaders" in Raleigh think the state line ends somewhere around Greensboro.
Great concept (although not new, several counties have quick response vehicles that do the same thing although most use SUVs). With this "muscle car" look though if one is involved in a 10-50 and it's the paramedic's fault, Wake EMS had better be prepared to get blistered by the media and by associates of Dewey,Cheatem & Howe, attorneys at law.

 

[jthorpe]

Well the media is what it is. It doesn't matter if you're a cop, firefighter or EMS. They will hammer you if you make the slightest mistake, because we are supposed to be perfect.

 

[mthom50]

Refer to Pager?

Listen out for the new EMS vehicles on Raleigh/Wake Locution Dispatch 156.225Mhz under the callsigns:
MEDIC 91
MEDIC 92
MEDIC 93
MEDIC 94
MEDIC 95
MEDIC 96
Marshall KE4ZNR

Thanks for the tip on unit numbers, Marshall. From what I've been hearing, it seems these cars are perhaps only being dispatched on locution so far as "refer to pager for units." Not certain, but have yet to hear one of the callsigns above in a dispatch, but have heard them check in on TAC channels following one of the "pager" dispatch references. On a more general note, do you have a sense of the reasons for the occasional "refer to pager for units/location/incident type" dispatches, while most are more straightforward?

Thanks, MTM

 

[KE4ZNR]

Yeah, I have been informed that Locution has not been updated yet to be able to "Speak" or pronounce the word "Medic" although that should be happening sometime soon. So for now it is "Ref to pagers for Units."

As far as the "Refer to pager for units" Locution response, more times than not
the reason is (like in this case) Locution does not have any idea of how to pronounce the unit name/agency name which is being paged out so it reverts back to "refer to pager for units". There is a feature built in to locution that will attempt to spell the street name if it can not pronounce it (most famous example being the fact it can say "Krispy Kreme" but has to spell out d-o-u-g-h-n-u-t-s.) but that feature does not extend out to Agency name. I also believe brevity is also a consideration in terms of the Locution pages.
Edit to add: Remember that the responding units not only have alpha pagers with the entire call info but also "Rip and Run" Sheets with the call info as well.
Marshall KE4ZNR

Thanks for the tip on unit numbers, Marshall. From what I've been hearing, it seems these cars are perhaps only being dispatched on locution so far as "refer to pager for units." Not certain, but have yet to hear one of the callsigns above in a dispatch, but have heard them check in on TAC channels following one of the "pager" dispatch references. On a more general note, do you have a sense of the reasons for the occasional "refer to pager for units/location/incident type" dispatches, while most are more straightforward?

Thanks, MTM

 

[whitehelmet1202]

being the fact it can say "Krispy Kreme" but has to spell out d-o-u-g-h-n-u-t-s.

Marshall KE4ZNR

That's funny. Kinda like the NOAA radio trying to pronounce some of the local community names when a weather alert goes out.

Locution takes some time to get used to, but something like that here in Pender County would be better than some of the dispatchers they have hired lately. For some reason it takes 10 minutes for the fire dispatcher to page us out after EMS requests us to respond, and the dispatchers are sitting side-by-side....sheesh

 

[mthom50]

Locution Enunciation

Yeah, I have been informed that Locution has not been updated yet to be able to "Speak" or pronounce the word "Medic" although that should be happening sometime soon. So for now it is "Ref to pagers for Units."

Marshall KE4ZNR

Thanks, that makes sense, and I have heard the "spell it out" calls you referred to from time to time. Not to flog the off-topic subject too much, but regarding the locution, it's interesting that when a Fuquay-Varina unit is dispatched, Ms Locutor Voice pronounces the same town name two ways back to back, i.e. "House Fire; Foo-quay-Varina, Fyew-quay-Varina Car 2," etc...

 

[rescom]

My question is..Are they like first responders? They get there first, and start working while the EMT-B's or EMT-I's respond? And then the EMT-P hops on the rescue leaving the car and then picks it up after they return from the hospital?

Right now the Medic units are responding to all Delta level EMD calls, Code Blue's and the more serious MVA's (pin in's, etc...) and some other EMS calls that have high accuity. They will also be doing welfare checks as time allows in the hopes it will deter some of the "frequent flyers" and free up the regular EMS units for the other emergency calls. They are not supervisors but Advanced Practice Paramedics. Basicly it's a lot resources allocated to priority calls. For example a shooting gets 2 EMS units, an APP and an EMS Supervisor not to metion the First Responders. Hope this helps!

 

[KM4WLV]

Was coming through Raleigh today on my way back to Salisbury & saw 2 of these hot rods coming down........ name of the road escapes me. Its off of 440 & runs in front of WakeMed there at Sunnybrook Rd. Anyway they were on it pretty good when they passed me, but I'm not sure where they were going, as I wasn't monitoring VIPER this afternoon.

Slick looking in person though. Also saw the DC-1 vehicle pictured above run hot too.