SUSAN PINSON: Quality EMS in Lee County is worth the cost

Many are aware of Lee County Board of Commissioners’ impending proposal to restructure EMS and combine them with the fire department. Over half of Lee County’s paramedics have dual employment, and this change would put them in a position to choose between two jobs. Staying with their other job will prevent them from joining a department where they will lose seniority and leave time to seek secondary employment.

Lee County has recently invested thousands of dollars in training the majority of these paramedics as firefighters and spent money to purchase individualized firefighter turn out gear. The county commissioners also want to have one paramedic on each ambulance, but everyone needs to understand there’s a vast difference in training and scope of practice for EMTs and paramedics.

Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the Unites States and that number is exponentiated is southwest Georgia. There are many key differences between a paramedic and an EMT when caring for you if you have a heart attack. Aspirin is one of the most important drugs you can receive, and the earlier the better because time is muscle. A paramedic can administer aspirin, but an EMT may only assist you with your own aspirin.

A paramedic can give you nitroglycerin, which can help increase blood flow to the heart, but an EMT can only assist you with your own nitroglycerin. A paramedic can give you IV morphine, which decreases the hearts demand for oxygen, but an EMT cannot. A paramedic can perform and interpret if your 12 lead EKG shows you are having an acute MI/heart attack. The paramedic then alerts the local emergency room physician, who calls the cardiologist, who activates the cardiac cath team, which all substantially decreases the length of time taken to receive the life-saving intervention of cardiac stent placement.

During an acute MI/heart attack you are at risk for going into cardiac arrest. During cardiac arrest, the paramedic runs the “code.” The paramedic can defibrillate/shock your heart out of a lethal rhythm. The paramedic can intubate you to help ensure your body is getting adequate oxygen while the EMT is doing chest compressions.

Some of you may think this is the perfect example of team work, but because there is only one paramedic who can do all the things that the EMT cannot, the EMT is left doing chest compressions by himself, and a backup ambulance is eight to 10 minutes away. The American Heart Association suggests that persons performing chest compressions swap out every two minutes because the quality of chest compressions drops significantly after two minutes, even when performed by the most seasoned and fit.

In Georgia the minimum requirements to operate an advanced life support (ALS) ambulance is the presence of one paramedic and an EMT. Lee County’s standards should be higher than the minimum.

Do the citizens think Mr. Muggridge, the chairman of the Lee County Board of Commissioners and owner of DWB Insurance in Albany, recommends his friends, family and customers purchase minimal insurance coverage? Better insurance coverage costs a little more, but people need that little extra coverage just in case the worst possible scenario takes place.

Having two paramedics is like having that little bit of extra insurance coverage in case the worst possible scenario happens, so Lee County’s residents will have a lesser chance of losing their life.

As an ER nurse I have witnessed the difference paramedics have made for many patients. I have also helped drag lifeless bodies out of family vehicles because the family panicked and thought they could get to the hospital faster and help their family members more by driving rather than calling 911. If EMS is cut or lessened in any way, whether by privatization or having fewer paramedics, there will be a greater risk of people panicking and choosing to drive their fatally ill loved ones to the ER rather than calling 911.

Lee County currently has the best call response time for all of Georgia and Lee County’s Board of Commissioners should do whatever they can to keep it that way.

Contact your county commissioner about your EMS coverage. Let your voice be heard at one of Lee County Board of Commissioners’ meetings, which are April 12, 19 and 26. Contacts are: District 1, Dennis Roland, [email protected]; District 2, Luke Singletary, [email protected]; District 3, Billy Mathis, [email protected]; District 4, Rick Muggridge, [email protected]; District 5, Greg Frich, [email protected]; Lee County Commissioners, (229) 759-6000.

Your support of this important issue is greatly appreciated.

Susan A. Pinson of Lee County is a registered nurse.