GILROY
– At 7:59 a.m. Wednesday morning the Gilroy Fire Department had
the worst medical coverage of any fire department in the
county.
One minute later, it had the best.
GILROY – At 7:59 a.m. Wednesday morning the Gilroy Fire Department had the worst medical coverage of any fire department in the county.
One minute later, it had the best.
The GFD’s implementation of its firefighter/paramedic program officially began at 8 a.m. Wednesday – a move years in the making that will potentially save the lives of several Gilroyans each year.
Gilroy is the last city in the county to have the program, and although there were no medical calls to respond to yesterday, the atmosphere within the GFD was filled with excitement.
“This is a big day for Gilroy and long overdue,” said GFD Chief Jeff Clet, who oversaw the San Jose Fire Department’s creation of their program in the mid-’90s when he was an assistant chief there. “Now we can bring our citizens the highest level of out-of-the-hospital care possible.”
The firefighter/paramedic program mandates that a fully certified paramedic who is also an official firefighter will be in every fire engine that responds to an emergency call.
Having a county licensed paramedic on each engine is seen as essential because, due to their strategic locations, engines from Gilroy’s two fire stations almost always arrive at a trauma scene call before an ambulance. A lack of ambulances in the city and Gilroy’s isolated county location can also cause delays if two emergencies requiring ambulances in the area happen within the same time frame.
For instance, if the city’s lone ambulance currently housed at the Hilton Gardens Hotel on south Monterey Road is already at a call or transporting a patient to a hospital, the nearest ambulance is at the California Highway Patrol station on U.S. 101 and Masten Avenue. After that, the closest is in north Morgan Hill – then South San Jose.
And while every Gilroy firefighter is already a trained advanced Emergency Medical Technician – which is more required medical certification than at any other department in the county – they are not legally permitted to provide certain types of critical medical care to patients that ambulance-staffed paramedics can.
The difference can be life and death.
“This is Gilroy taking care of itself,” GFD Capt. Colin Martin said. “Our city has made the commitment to watch out for its citizens.”
On Wednesday at the city’s Las Animas Station on Wren Avenue, Heinz Mailbaum and Shaun Peyghambary became the first employees to work as firefighter/paramedics in Gilroy.
The firefighters’ paramedic or Advanced Life Support (ALS) certifications mean they can provide advanced cardiac care, advanced pediatric care hypoglycemia/Insulin reaction, i.v. fluids, vascular access (with drugs) and advanced drugs administration at a trauma scene – all actions that city firefighters with EMT training cannot do by law.
Both Mailbaum and Peyghambary have taken 1,000 hours of classes, worked 160 hours in emergency rooms and more than 500 hours on ambulances before receiving their paramedic certificates.
Between salary, equipment and administrative work the program is expected to cost the city $251,000 a year – although $136,000 is expected to be returned to the city in revenue through the county’s sub-contract with AMR, leaving the annual cost at $115,000.
“I can say from experience that this program will save lives,” said Peyghambary, who worked as a firefighter/paramedic in Salinas for four years before being hired by the GFD in September.
“Time is a critical factor in any cardiac trauma scene – which are a bulk of our medical calls,” he said. “Within four to six minutes of cardiac arrest brain death starts to occur. As paramedics we can administer the i.v. and fluids the patients needs and not wait for AMR (American Medical Response ambulances). This has unlocked the door to so many things.”
By July, when the city’s firefighter/paramedic program will be fully-implemented with the addition of the third fire station at 880 Sunrise Drive, 15 of Gilroy’s 36 firefighters will be paramedic certified.
For now, six firefighters/paramedics – two each 24-hour shift – will work only at the Last Animas Station. The reason for this is that the city’s “Medical 10” unit – the paramedic Sports Utility Vehicle responding to trauma scenes – is located at the south end of town near the Chestnut Station’s coverage area.
When the Chestnut Station begins it’s medic program in March, the Medical 10 will no longer be needed.
“It’s been disappointing being at a trauma scene like a pediatric seizure and having to wait until AMR arrived,” said Mailbaum, who’s been with the GFD for 13 months in strictly a firefighter role. “Now we have the equipment and resources to do what we think will help.”
Although AMR – a private ambulance company which has a contract with the county – will still transport patients to the hospital, fire engines will now carry potent drugs, i.v. lines and advanced medical machines previously prohibited.
Paramedic certified firefighters earn 11 percent more than Emergency Medical Technician firefighters, and with their 60 hours of college credits their base pay jumps from $59,556 to $66,107.
The new paramedic program will also have to supply cost for continuing education, pay each paramedic a $100 accreditation fee and pay for additional paramedic equipment.
In addition to the new force of 15 firefighter/paramedics, a $268,000 firefighting/ambulance vehicle is also planned to be purchased by the department which will give the paramedics the ability to transport patients with life-threatening injuries to the hospital. The new vehicle will be housed at the Sunrise Station when it opens in July – although the station will not be complete until January 2004.
“Because we are the last department in the county to implement the program, we have been able to learn from the other’s and go forward much faster,” Clet said. “There will be minor transitions to overcome, but this is a winning situation to everyone in Gilroy.”
