EMS Providers Honored During EMS Week, May 21-27
Emergency Medical Service providers are an important part of the community, and Marshfield Fire & Rescue is recognizing these individuals during National EMS Week.
In 2016, Marshfield Fire & Rescue (a full-time career department) ran 2,658 ambulance calls, accounting for 91% of their responses (with the remaining being for fire). Each member of the department has an EMS background, with 23 licensed Critical Care Paramedics and 11 EMT Basics (plus two open positions currently in the process of being filled).
“EMS week is a time set aside every year to show gratitude and thanks to the EMS community, all the way from emergency medical responders to paramedics,” said Interim Chief Scott Owen.
Owen has been a firefighter/EMT with Marshfield Fire & Rescue for more than two decades, including 3.5 years as EMS Service Director.
“EMS is a profession that you get into for the satisfaction of helping others. It’s not for the money,” said Owen. “This week in particular is a chance for not only employers to recognize staff, but the community to be able to learn more about their EMS providers and their EMS system.”
“Usually you’ll hear a sense of community as the reason for someone working in EMS,” added Jonathan Altman, firefighter/paramedic with the department. “They want to give back to the community where they live or serve. In my heart of hearts, I truly believe people get into this to help.”
Altman’s favorite part of the job is witnessing the relief of those in need when he arrives to help.
“It’s a comforting thing, that you can reassure them,” he said. “It’s what gets me every time, seeing the relief that people have when get our help.”
This year’s EMS Week theme is “Always in Service,” reflecting how on any given day, EMS practitioners help save lives by responding to medical emergencies.
“One of the reasons that we are always in service is it doesn’t matter where we are, if we are on duty or off duty, if something happens, we are there to help,” said Owen. “We go on anything. We’ve been on industrial accidents. We’ve been on cardiac arrests. We go on sick children, injured children. We run the gambit. It just really depends on what’s happening that day. Any type of call you can think of, we probably have seen it already.”
All medics are also trained on Rescue Task Force, to assist in the event of an active shooter.
“They are trained to go into into the hazard and start treating people,” said Owen. “We really hope we never need to. We hope we never have an active shooter here. But we’re not immune.”
In addition to running ambulance calls for the community, if there is a fire the ambulance crew is always on scene.
“They are firefighters, but they are there in case a civilian or one of us gets hurt,” said Owen. “They will also perform rehab to get the firefighters out of their gear, get them some water. We’ll also do that for the townships if they request it. That’s important. It shows that bond that we have between the entities.”
A service that is often taken for granted, EMS week is a chance for both leadership and the community to thank Marshfield Fire & Rescue. Something unique to the department is that patients are billed only at the rate of service they need. Thus, if they need a lower level of care, even if they are treated by a critical care paramedic, they will only be charged for that lower level of care. Additionally, if the ambulance is waived by the patient, there is typically no charge.
“Our overall goal is to provide the highest quality care to our patients that we can,” said Owen. “Really, what we do on the EMS side falls right in line with our department’s mission statement. We do it through assessment, through prevention, through education, and through response. Those are what we look for.”
“This is just a chance to show what we do for our communities and that we are here for them,” said Owen.
