By Patric Hedlund
Last week, Hall Ambulance Service changed its staffing and call response procedures from its Frazier Park station.
An ALS ambulance staffed with an Advanced Life Support-certified paramedic on board will now respond only to calls from the company’s exclusive operating area (EOA) in Kern County, according to Hall spokesperson Mark Corum. Formerly the ALS ambulance also responded to calls in northern Los Angeles County (such as to Interstate 5 crashes and Hungry Valley State OHV Park accidents).
Last week a "BLS" ambulance (Basic Live Support, carrying Emergency Medical Technicians–EMTs–rather than paramedics) was stationed for one week from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. for seven days to be able to respond to calls from northern Los Angeles County according to a report from an L.A. County paramedic.
Director of Emergency Medical Services for Kern County, Ross Elliott, indicated that a change was being made in order for Hall to be able to meet its mandated call-response times for mountain residents under the new Kern County ambulance performance standards.
As of Wednesday, Sept. 5 however, Corum said that the 7-day-a-week BLS ambulance staffing has now receded to a "weekend and other days as needed" staffing, which would place the mountain back into the status of having a single ALS ambulance available for the entire mountain community during weekdays. He added that the ALS ambulance is eligible for response to calls to Interstate 5 on the Kern County side of the line.
Elliott emphasized that his EMS department is not involved in the daily operational choices of the ambulance companies it oversees.
Corum also replied to a question regarding continuation of the adjunct ALS weekend station in Pine Mountain, saying in an email dialogue September 5: "Hall Ambulance continues to staff the Pine Mountain Club ambulance station on weekends despite low call volume. We have continued to do so since May 2006 at a cost of $10,000 per month, at no cost to the community." Contrary to some citizen reports, Corum said that the Pine Mountain station "was open this weekend" during Oktoberfest.
Concerned mountain residents had long observed that calls from emergencies on the Interstate 5 and at Hungry Valley State OHV Park often pulled the mountain’s ambulance away for hours, exposing mountain residents to longer response times in emergencies when a substitute vehicle had to be dispatched from Taft or other distant sites.
The distinction between and ALS (paramedic) and a BLS (EMT) ambulance is that a paramedic is able to open breathing pathways, begin an intravenous drip, administer strong life-saving medicines for events such as heart attacks and take aggressive action in the case of life-threatening events such as a collapsed lung. In Kern County (not L.A. County) an EMT may also use a device to clear airways, then provide basic CPR and first aid. An EMT does not administer heroic drugs, insert an IV or have tools or techniques to open a collapsed lung, for instance.
This is part of the September 07, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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