PEORIA —
A second Peoria Fire Department engine is now equipped with life-saving drugs and firefighters trained to use them during an emergency thanks to a joint public-private partnership.
Engine 20 has gained Advanced Life Support Service designation and is the second engine in three years to do so, Peoria Fire Department Chief Kent Tomblin said. Engine 12 initiated the program locally three years ago.
"We respond to all emergencies in the city with basic life support," Tomblin said. "But advanced life support . . . means we can now administer life saving drugs."
The engines equipped with the systems are strategically stationed in areas where life saving potential can be maximized, Tomblin said. Additional engines may be upgraded in the future as the need arises, he added.
"We have pinpointed these areas as places where we need to get to people with life-saving drugs as quick as we can," he said.
Those drugs include treatment for coronary issues, as well as diabetes and seizures among other common, life-threatening ailments. Engine 20 in particular is well situated to deal with a higher frequency of coronary emergency calls, Tomblin said.
The upgrade has been coordinated with the city's private ambulance service, Advanced Medical Transport, which provides the drugs and training to firefighters free of charge.
"By working together, all the citizens are benefiting from it," Tomblin said. "It's good for the citizens, it's good for the hospitals, and it's good for medical care."
Matt Buedel can be reached at 686-3154 or mbuedel@pjstar.com.
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My comments and questions:
1. How can this be happening? We were told for years by OSF's Dr. George Hevesy and Dr. Rick Miller and AMT's Executive Director Andrew Rand that the Peoria Fire Department needed to stay out of the paramedic business. Were they wrong? Why were they not quoted in the JS article? Hevesy, Miller, and Rand for a decade assured all Peorians that everything was good...Chief Tomblin is implying above that advanced life support is better than basic life support. Gee whiz, what is going on here?
2. I hope AMT does not get charged with Medicare fraud again and get fined 2 million dollars by the Feds again. The three hospitals in Peoria paid $750,000 dollars a piece to pay the fine. And taxpayers like you and me were helping paying AMT's inflated rates at the time.
3. And the PFD still can't transport patients to local emergency departments. That is where the real money is made. AMT does that in Peoria and makes tons of money for the transport. The patient can just wait no matter how sick or how injured they are.
4. See this post and this post
5. And please see this post from a few years ago.
4. See this post and this post
5. And please see this post from a few years ago.
jc
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