FIREFIGHTERS FIELD MEDICAL ASSISTANCE CALLS

Those who read the police, sheriff's and fire reports daily in the newspaper perhaps have noticed that the Cape Girardeau Fire Department have been running a lot of medical calls in recent weeks.

In fact, since the program was started on May 21, emergency medical responses have nearly doubled the total number of calls received by the fire department. Some days, those are the only calls firefighters are dispatched to.

"Right now, about 40 percent of our calls are medical assists, which averages out to about 100 calls per month," said Fire Chief Robert L. Ridgeway. "We expect that percentage to rise in the future -- the more we become involved in emergency medical responses, the more calls will be channeled our way."

Ridgeway said the medical calls performed by his department are "working very well and getting better and better all the time," for a couple of reasons.

The first reason being that the fire department and the Cape County Private Ambulance Service are getting "very used to each other and are developing a good working relationship, supporting each other at incident scenes," he said.

In July, the two entities went through a somewhat trying period when central dispatchers were sending out fire trucks before forwarding calls to the ambulance service. Both now say that situation has been resolved.

Michael R. Craig, operations supervisor of the Cape County Private Ambulance Service, said Ridgeway's assessment of the relationship between the two is fair.

"(The situation in July) was like any other thing which arises in a working relationship," he said. "You have an occasional glitch which must be addressed and then you move on."

Both Craig and Dr. John Russell, president of the local ambulance service, said no other problems have arisen since.

"(Cape Girardeau Police Capt.) Steve Strong deserves a pat on the back for taking the dispatching issue under his wing and getting it resolved promptly," Russell said. "Since then, everything has been fine."

Ridgeway said another reason the department's medical runs have been so beneficial is that they are giving firefighters with medical training a chance to apply what they have learned in earning their training certificates.

The department currently staffs four paramedics and 16 emergency medical technicians (EMTs). Lt. Brad Golden, a paramedic himself, recently passed the state boards to be certified as a registered nurse.

The remaining members of the department, including Ridgeway, are certified as first responders.

"We got into this program for a very good reason," said Ridgeway. "There was an obvious need for quicker medical assistance in this community. We had the personnel and the means by which to deliver it.

"We have four (fire) stations strategically located throughout the city, making our average response time to just about anywhere about three and a half minutes," he continued. "The ambulance service -- who by the way is doing a great job with the resources they have -- has one facility on North Kingshighway, making their response time to some locations significantly greater."

Ridgeway said the fire department is merely augmenting a system which already existed within the city.

"We realized that there was this need within the community and we could meet that need with the personnel and equipment we already had available to us," he said.

Golden added: "We get a lot of input from the ambulance service. They will do all they can at a scene to help the first responders along."

After the decision was made for the fire department to begin responding to medical calls, Ridgeway said the department had to purchase about $9,000 worth of medical equipment for the trucks.

More costly pieces of medical equipment have either been donated outright to the department, or purchased with funds donated by the community.

"We carried a little medical equipment before -- primarily on the rescue vehicles -- but not nearly to the extent we do now," he said. "We had to do a little rearranging of the fire equipment, but every truck now has one compartment designated for medical equipment, marked by the star of life."

Personnel did not have to be moved around like the equipment on the trucks, Ridgeway said.

"We had enough EMTs and paramedics spread around as it was," said Ridgeway. "We're not required to have a paramedic or someone with a higher level of certification ride with every crew, so we're really in pretty good shape as we are now."

Overall, the firefighters have accepted this new responsibility in stride, Ridgeway said.

"They're doing an exceptional job," Ridgeway said. "Not a week goes by when we don't receive at least one letter from someone in the community thanking us for our services.

"The citizens now have come to understand and expect this kind of service from their fire department," Ridgeway said. "And they are getting that service without it costing a penny -- we are using and training staff while they are on duty."

The fire chief believes that the medical calls run by the fire department have had a sizable impact on the community, not to mention the response time to some of the more serious situations.

"The key to all of this is to cut the response time or hands-on medical care time down to an absolute minimum," Ridgeway said. "You only have four to six minutes after a person has stopped breathing to resuscitate him before effects on the body become irreversible."

The future of the medical assistance runs may lead to the formation of Paramedic Engine Companies in the fire department. They would allow firefighters to carry advanced life support equipment on their trucks.

In addition, this winter the department is going to try to provide in-house training for first responders who want to upgrade their medical training to the EMT level.

"It was a good idea when we started and it's just getting better all the time," Ridgeway said.