A question about emergency services in St.Mary's

[angieanderic]

uuu

[smcop]

I don't believe we have "paid" ems. We have dedicated ems and volunteer fire fighters, but I for one wouldn't mind a bump in my taxes to have a full time, 24/7 paid ems.

[angieanderic]

nnn

[smcop]

All first responders in Maryland receive basic triage care training. Any paramedic who arrives has to have extensive training in order to be a paramedic.

Are these people on duty or off duty. Remember, people live at the fire house, so they may be off duty if they are drinking. I have been on the scene of hundreds if not thousands of accidents/calls for service involving rescue squad people. I have never detected alcohol coming from any of them.

when i lived in calvert I lived right infront of the solomons firehouse and there were a few times I called them and it took them over 30min and by the time they showed up stleonard was on the scene and they always argued over who was going to take care of me or my family and now that I live in stmarys I have no clue how they handle things I hope different than calvert does.

[General Lee]

St. Mary's doesn't have ant paid volunteers. When you call 911 the center dispatches the nearest fire or EMS station and depending on the type of call, an Advanced life support unit is dispatched. These units have at least one paramedic on them.

Most fire and EMS stations have SOP's in place place where at least one EMT has to be on board for an Ambulance to leave out the door. A lot of the fire fighters are crossed trained and are EMT's as well. To be honest, it really depends on the time of day where most vounteers are available, as they work full time jobs as well. If the first due station does not get out within a set amount of time, the next closest station is dispatched....and again who knows who is available at that station. All stations do their best to answer the calls.

Charles county has a number of paid personel in some of the busier stations and on the Advanced Life Support units. They work out of the same stations as the volunteers. Hope this helps answer your questions.

[sparkysgirl]

There are some time issues with EMS/Fire response in SOMD. You have to remember however, we are volunteer. We do the best we can with what we can. There are times, especially at Solomons, we have all 3 ambulances out on the road or have to respond from Prince Frederick all the way down to our first due. I'm not saying our system is perfect, because from my providers point of view it is very frustrating at times and I understand perfectly well that our citizens have some concerns.

However, we are getting less and less support from our citizens as well. They are quick to bash the volunteers, but I don't see them stepping in and helping. Volunteering one night a week or one a month. When we are constantly bashed by papers like the St. Mary's Today and never praised for the work we do, it severely lowers moral.

Look at the County statistics, generally response time is no where near 30 minutes. I'm not saying it never is and I'm not saying there are not improvements the county/stations can make. But there are things citizens can do to. I can not tell you how many times it has taken me an additional 10 or 15 minutes to find a house because they give the wrong address or there is no address visible on or near their property or there is no body outside to wave us down. This goes both ways, in order for local response (in both counties) to improve, both sides need to step up.

I posted a thread on here about 2 months ago asking for community input on the good and bad things they see from their local company. I planned on taking these back to my station and making improvements, however I did not get much response. If you have specific incidents of good or bad things, please pm me about them.

Kelly
SVRSFD CO. 3

[SweetThang]

Originally Posted by angieanderic

Are there any paid EMS,paramedics,etc? A couple years ago,my husband called 911 because someone in our home was having trouble breathing. We waited about 25 minutes,then gave up and drove to the hospital ourselves. I know that is not the best idea,but at the time fear took over the common sense. So it got me to thinking,what happens if one of my kids chokes,or someone has a heart attack,etc. Is the EMS system here to call 911,wait for volunteers to be called,hope they are ready to walk out the door and are sober and nearby,and then someone with minimal training shows up? I am not being critical,I am asking because this really worries me...I have two small kids,one of whom has severe allergic reactions to insects,and if I ever needed help,I would like to feel either more at ease,or know where we would stand.

If you have 2 small children 1 w/allergic reactions YOU should know what to do-do you have an EPI-pen, do you know how to use it?

As sparkysgirl posted what if all the available ambulances are out on calls, doesn't matter if the county has 12-when they are out on calls, they are out.

As far as your cheap shot about being sober-don't go there!

Maybe you should be part of the solution instead of the problem! Go take a CPR class or a First Responders or EMT class.

[SweetThang]

Originally Posted by angieanderic

Are there any paid EMS,paramedics,etc? A couple years ago,my husband called 911 because someone in our home was having trouble breathing. We waited about 25 minutes,then gave up and drove to the hospital ourselves. I know that is not the best idea,but at the time fear took over the common sense. So it got me to thinking,what happens if one of my kids chokes,or someone has a heart attack,etc. Is the EMS system here to call 911,wait for volunteers to be called,hope they are ready to walk out the door and are sober and nearby,and then someone with minimal training shows up? I am not being critical,I am asking because this really worries me...I have two small kids,one of whom has severe allergic reactions to insects,and if I ever needed help,I would like to feel either more at ease,or know where we would stand.

Another thing-didn't you do your research when you moved to where you are living? Or are you one of those folks who move to the country and expect it to be just like where you moved from w/all the amenities?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[mackco79 (Premo)]

Originally Posted by SweetThang

If you have 2 small children 1 w/allergic reactions YOU should know what to do-do you have an EPI-pen, do you know how to use it?

As sparkysgirl posted what if all the available ambulances are out on calls, doesn't matter if the county has 12-when they are out on calls, they are out.

As far as your cheap shot about being sober-don't go there!

Maybe you should be part of the solution instead of the problem! Go take a CPR class or a First Responders or EMT class.