Narcisse asks about engine RMA, ambulance choice, and volunteers
Narcisse asks whether engine companies can refuse medical attention for patients and whether people should call volunteer or private ambulances. Esposito says only EMTs and paramedics can perform an RMA, and Miano says callers can call community volunteers directly, but 911 dispatches the closest appropriate ambulance.
Thank you, Chair.
I have a question.
Can an engine RMA a patient to clear the ambulances, which is refuse medical attention?
Can you do that for those that don't understand?
Right.
So RMA refuses medical care when somebody calls an ambulance and then that patient, we arrive and that patient does not want to be treated.
That's a procedure we call an RMA.
Currently, only emergency medical technicians and paramedics can do that.
So the firefighters on the CFR engine cannot do that.
Because I think for safety, you don't want to IMA someone and then the person need emergency and they not access properly.
That's what my assumption is.
Is that correct?
Under our normal general guidelines, the firefighters that are certified first responders are not tasked with that.
Okay.
Should everyone be calling their ambulance of choice?
Can they do that?
Should they be calling the private or the volunteer or the volunteer hospital?
What's your...
So...
If they're, I'm sorry, so volunteer agencies do have ambulances in their communities, right?
And that's the first and foremost, that's their job is to staff their ambulance within their community.
And if someone wants to call their community volunteers directly, they absolutely, you know, can do that.
When you call 911, you get the closest ambulance in the 911 system to where the location is for the illness or injury.
We don't determine whether it's a municipal or a voluntary hospital ambulance.
When we dispatch, we dispatch the closest appropriate ambulance to the location where the injured or ill person is.
Okay.
So I was trying to see if we can decrease the amount.
Can you decrease the amount of folks running, you know, in one space and you kind of like, you know,
moment for you, you don't have enough, and then if those volunteer ambulances, like I have Flatland,
we have Hadzola, so would you encourage that to happen in a case that, let's say you have a question, it's not really emergency, emergency, or even for emergency.
Yeah, so I think, again, if someone has, they're volunteers, right?
And I don't know if we can guarantee that a volunteer is always going to be in service.
But we can guarantee that if you call 911, we have ambulances in service.
Clear.
You've made it clear.
Crystal clear.