Partnering Up for Your Safety! RVFD Thanks the City of Rockville for its ALS Chase Car

On Monday, Officers and Members of the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department presented ALS703 to the Rockville Mayor and Council. The unit which was recently placed in service was purchased with grant funding from the City of Rockville.

The RVFD would like to thank Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton and the Council for their support to the RVFD and the citizens we serve. ALS703 is staffed with a Paramedic which responds to reported critical emergency medical calls alongside an ambulance staffed with Emergency Medical Technicians.  ALS703 allows the paramedic to rapidly assess a patient and determine if advanced life support (ALS) is needed.  After the assessment, the paramedic will transport (ride with) the patient in the ambulance to the hospital when advanced care is needed.

There are many benefits of the Paramedic Chase Unit (PCU) which include a rapid return to service if the patient does not require the care of a paramedic during transport. This reduces the time a paramedic is unavailable to provide care to other potential patients.  Prior to the Paramedic Chase Unit or ALS Chase Car, paramedics where assigned to staff transport ambulances. With the paramedic assigned to a transport ambulance, they were the primary care provider even when a patient did not require higher level care.

Currently MCFRS has Paramedic Chase Units at the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department, Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad and Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad.  These units are each owned by the local fire and rescue departments and staffed with MCFRS career and volunteer professionals. Over the next couple of months, MCFRS will place additional PCU's in service resulting in a more efficient delivery of ALS service throughout the County.

National Emergency Medical Services Week: May 15 – 21, 2016

This week is National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week, in honor of the dedicated men and women who provide critical day-to-day lifesaving services on the “frontlines” of emergencies across the country. When conditions can change in seconds, dual role firefighters/EMTs and firefighter/paramedics in Montgomery County provide sophisticated, state-of-the-art pre-hospital emergency medical care that can often mean the difference between life and death. The fire department has a rich history of protecting the health and safety of the community through an ‘all hazards’ response model and this week provides an opportunity to recognize EMS contributions of the past and build upon them for a safer tomorrow.

Learn About CPR

Great job by Captain Triplett, Master Firefighter/Paramedic Russell, and Firefighter Richardson.

The Elders

Note: the below is from a blog written by Pam Boe who is a volunteer Paramedic and is married to one of our career Fire Captains.  This provides you a glimpse into other aspects of public safety life - continuing education and re certification training.  The learning and training never stop!  Our folks are always working hard to be prepared and ready to respond to all sorts of emergencies here in the county.

And some of our folks work hard to become, and maintain, certifications as instructors going that extra mile!  They not only teach a curriculum but they also pass along invaluable real world experiences that may help save a life one day!

Thanks to Pam and her blog, Mama Boe, for allowing us to "reprint" this here.

-Bill D


It takes an innate ability to read an audience to be a decent classroom instructor. Especially when your students are:
1) Adults,
2) Very Bright,
3) In your class mandatorily to maintain their certification, and,
4) Medics.



I don’t know that I would have the courage to lecture such a roughened, seasoned, bunch of extreme, living-on-the-edge-for-a-career kind of people.




(Heck I’m amazed I have the courage to show up at all, even just to sit in the back.)
But these guys do:



Joe, Adam, and Ty….Decades of experience between them. Hundreds of lives saved or healed for the better because of them, personally. Thousands of lives affected positively because of the medics they teach and train.

To be able to teach a subject is to have mastered it. To be able to teach it in a way that keeps the student not only interested, but also entertained, is a talent.

In this particular case, everybody wins. The teachers, for the mastery… the students, to grow their skills and knowledge… and the citizens they serve, for they will get better care for it.

Most people don’t realize how much work goes into and behind each and every 911 call that goes out. It’s not as simple as getting into an ambulance and picking the patient or victim up. Hours and hours of training go into it.

Why?

Because the medics want to do a good job?
Because the medics don’t want to be caught with their pants down?
Because the medics are afraid of litigation?
Because the medics have some kind of ‘Hero’ or ‘God’ complex?

No.

It’s simply because they care.