the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, recently there has been a renewed push of disinformation as to the defunding of the Per Diem EMT Program . To set the matter straight the Ridgewood is re-posting the May 10, 2021 article recounting all the FACTS in detail . For the record this blog has always been a big fan of the volunteer EMT’s in the Village of Ridgewood , but certain agenda pushing residents have tried to use this event to further their own aims ,distort the public record and hurt Ridgewood Emergency Services Reputation.
Unfortunately candidates Winograd and Weitz driven by special interests have opted to engage in a disinformation campaign in an attempt to misinform voters .
Get Published , Tell your story #TheRidgewoodblog , #Indpendentnews #information #advertise #guestpost #affiliatemarketing ,#NorthJersey #NJ , #News #localnews #bergencounty #nj #sponsoredpost #SponsoredContent #contentplacement #guestposts #linkplacement Email: Onlyonesmallvoice@gmail.com
Posted on May 10, 2021
Village Council Votes on Defunding the Per Diem EMT Program on Wednesday
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Village of Ridgewood, civilian per diem paid daytime EMS program has been in existence since the early 1990’s. This civilian per diem paid daytime EMS program supplements the 30 EMT Volunteers who respond to calls 7 PM to 6 AM, weekends and general alarms. In 2020, there were over 1300 EMS calls and 440 Emergency Services calls in the Village. The Volunteers donated over 18,000 hours, not including training.
The Village Council has publicly decided to defund the current daytime EMS operations from civilian per diem paid EMT’s to paid firefighters. The Village is making this operational change because they have failed to thoroughly investigate as to why on 3 occasions, that the paid EMTs did not immediately respond to a call. If the Village Manager and the Council would have properly investigated and report what happened instead of immediately reacting without knowing the facts, this would be a non issue today. The radio alerting system at Headquarters 33 Douglas Place failed on 2 of the occasions. The radio alerts were not received. At times, there are dead zones at the building and the the alert is not received. How can the Village lay blame on the EMT for not responding immediately on communication failure? Last year, the solution was found to remedy the alerting issue. The operations officers engaged a visual alerting system in conjunction with the audible tones. It was never a problem of sleeping that caused the delayed response. It was only in getting the message. On the third instance, the paid EMT had a medical emergency that rendered him unable to hear the alert. He has since left the position.
In these instances, the residents were never in any harm or jeopardy because of the delayed arrival of the ambulance. For every medical call in the Village, Police Officers trained in First Aid (many of these officers are EMTS), are dispatched and are the First Responder. These Responders evaluate, provide care and can stabilize the patient. The Fire Department responds with an Engine with EMTS as well if available. There was no delay in care nor transport to the hospital.
Unfortunately there was not any open dialogue between the Village Manager, Village Council and the Fire Chief to discuss with the Emergency Services Chief as what had happened and what was done to rectify the situation by Emergency Services. It was only to be ammunition to fund for additional firefighters and defund the civilian per diem EMS program.
The proposed response plan announced by the Mayor and Village Manager duplicates responsibilities of emergency personnel. Due to the nature of the job and its unpredictable requirements, this will certainly put residents at risk. A choice has to be made as to which job task the firefighter will perform? Fire or EMS?
To eliminate this problem, The Emergency Services Chief had proposed to the Village to hire additional civilian per diem EMTs and to schedule 1 or 2 additional per diem EMTs at Douglas Place to handle first and second due EMS calls. This would allow the second EMT to continue to be provided from the fire department or allow 2 EMTs to cover the calls from Emergency Services Headquarters. This will resulting in having sufficient number of EMTs to cover both the first and second due calls. EMS response will be independent of fire personnel assigned for concurrent operations and ensure all calls are answered. Hire one EMT as a Supervisor and he would cover daytime office hours as well as providing EMT coverage. This is how it is done in many other jurisdictions. Emergency Services tried this in the past but the Village said that they wanted to use the Firefighters as they have plenty of free time on their hands and they were getting paid anyway. So why hire additional EMTS?
In recent years, 2 cities alone in Bergen County, Hackensack and Englewood implement Fire Department EMS coverage. Only to find out a short time later, it was not the right decision and cost them a lot of money. Why does the Village of Ridgewood think that they can do better and less cost? Have they spoken with the Chiefs of those cities? Lessons can be learned by not repeating the failures of others.
The Village plan to defund the civilian per diem paid EMS program and give full operations to the Fire Department is a risk and a safety hazard to the residents of the Village. Currently, the per diem EMT, responds from the firehouse alone to the medical call and is followed by a fire engine with a crew containing an EMT. There is not a dedicated committed Fire Department EMT whom is only assigned to EMS for the shift. The Firefighter is wearing two Public Safety hats at the same time. One as a Firefighter and one as an EMT for the ambulance. The firefighter cannot perform both jobs at the same time if there are simultaneous emergencies (Fire and EMS). If the FireFighter is engaged on a fire call, he can not go on the ambulance call. The Village ambulance will not be able to respond to the medical call. As a NJ State licensed BLS Ambulance, it is a requirement of NJ State Department of Health regulations for a licensed Ambulance while “in service”to respond to an emergency call shall be staffed with a minimun of 2 EMTS. In Service does mean responding to the call. Currently the per diem EMT drives the Ambulance to the scene while the Fire Department Engines brings an EMT. This is in violation on licensure and State Regulations subject to fines(more cost to the Village) and operations being shut down by the State Inspectors.
Ridgewood is operating in Violation. And by hiring 2 new Firefighters, that still have to be schooled and experience in Firefighting and EMS, how cantering these 2 people cover the daytime EMS operations without significant overtime to the current Firefighters? How much will this cost the Village? Has it even been considered by the Village Manager and Fire Chief? I can guarantee you that overtime alone will far exceed the cost of 2 firefighters. The Village is making decisions without knowing all the facts. How the previous problem has been rectified and what will happen if the Village adapts the budget.
Just a month ago, the Fire Department was operating on a smoke condition call in the business district. Almost simultaneously there was a medical call. The Fre Department advised Central Dispatch they they were unable to provide a Fire Fighter EMT for the EMS call in the Village. Central Dispatch was instructed to page for a general request for a volunteer EMT to cover the call with the per diem EMT. By Legal Statue, the Per Diem EMT could not bring that ambulance to the scene of the Emergency. The Village would have had to request from MICOM to find an ambulance even though one was waiting in Ridgewood with 1 EMT but the ambulance was missing the Fire Department EMT(that was expected to be there). Had no volunteers responded to assist the per diem EMT, the patient would have waited for a mutual aid ambulance dispatched from MICCOM. This means ambulances can be sent from anywhere within Bergen.
Subscribe Today to #theRidgewoodblog eBlast Stay Informed on #Local #Events and #News http://eepurl.com/bgt6T #subscribe #localnews #BergenCounty #Newjersey #information
Seems like this full explanation supports what Winograd and Weitz has been saying, and runs contrary to Knudsens claims of people sleeping on the job.
Wait, isn’t this the opposite of what the mayor said during the debate? I thought she said people were sleeping on the job, but that’s not what this says?
This term paper is interesting but one sided. The problems with the sleeping EMT and other issues were handled inside the department. The details of the personnel investigation are confidential, just like at any institution that fires employees.
Linda needs to move on.
Consider doubling up the parking enforcement officers (PEO) role with the emt. The current requirement that the peo spend 45% of shift leaning on police vehicle door at Van Neste park seems excessive.