A new level of hustle
Eric Sagonowsky
1of3The City of Manistee paramedic crew prepares to transport a patient after a car accident at the intersection of Tenth and Vine streets last week. Show MoreShow Less
2of3The paramedics use this cardiac monitor to track heart patterns, send the results to an emergency room and even print the results on the spot. It is a new piece of equipment that the city uses with its new advanced life support program. Show MoreShow Less
Manistee fire busy with advanced medical transports
MANISTEE -- After thousands of hours of commitment from firefighters, the citizens of Manistee are receiving the highest level of care possible.
The city is now fully certified to run advanced life support transports, meaning that the paramedics can use equipment like cardiac monitors, airway management and life sustaining drugs on ambulance runs. And firefighter/paramedics at the Manistee Fire Department say that they're pretty satisfied with how the program has turned out.
"I've been in fire and EMS, this is my ninth year now," said James Henderson, a firefighter/paramedic with the City of Manistee. "I have never been happier to work for a service. Having been able to be a part of the creation of an advanced life support ambulance service is something you don't see very often. It was a very exciting thing to be a part of."
Henderson is one of five fully trained paramedic/firefighters in the Manistee Fire Department and the department anticipates to having seven by this time next year. A paramedic on staff 24/7 and, in the coming years, the crew hopes to add a new ambulance. Though the paramedics went through countless hours of classes and hands-on training sessions, they are busy and enthusiastic now that the program is up and running.
"We have been much busier because it takes more time for the turnaround now that we are transporting," Henderson said. "We're not just providing first response like we used to. We're actually doing all of the transports and the procedures on scene. We're practically a mobile emergency room in the back of our ambulance."
Advanced life support, from the customer's perspective, will mean that for most incidents within the city there won't be redundant ambulances from both the West Shore Medical Center and the City of Manistee. It will mean quicker response time and less confusion. City paramedics can now make the most serious transports themselves instead of handing them off to the WSMC crew.
"The nice thing about that is, (in the past) you built a rapport with your patients, and then 10 minutes later, that rapport is broken and another crew has to essentially start all over again," said Heath Darling, Manistee Fire Department deputy chief and advanced life support manager.
"We're seeing the same number (of patients), the same types of people, that hasn't changed," Darling said. "It's just the degree of care that we can provide now has changed."
In addition to providing the highest degree of care, the program is estimated to more than double the department's transport revenue by billing the runs to insurance companies.
Advanced life support services were made possible from a forward-thinking approach, funding from the Local Revenue Sharing Board and thousands of hours of commitment from the City of Manistee paramedics.
"We believed that we could provide a guaranteed service to our citizens at a higher level," Manistee public safety director David Bachman said. "When we were going to a call, initially, 40 (percent) to 50 percent of citizens were calling 9-1-1, and we couldn't provide the level of care that they needed. We felt that as first responders that we should be able to provide 100 percent of the service to 100 percent of the people who call us. So, now if anybody in the City of Manistee calls for a medical unit, the guys arrive and can provide any level of care that they need.
"You take that and you add that the LRSB has paid for the lion's share of all of the stuff that we have had to do to make the transition, it hasn't been tax funded or general fund dollars to do that. So you've got the revenue sharing board, personnel commitment and a higher a level of service, all turns into what I would certainly call a no-brainer."
Now that the 18 months of work to implement advanced life support is complete, the paramedics say things have calmed down a bit, but there is still work to do.
"The last year and a half, two years of work, has finally come to fruition, and we can finally sit back and breath a sigh of relief, but at the same time we have to be moving this forward," Henderson said. "We want this to succeed and we want to keep providing this service, so we're just as busy as ever."