Florida Department Provides ALS Services

PLANT CITY - Plant City Fire Rescue began providing advanced life support services Friday, a move that calls for at least 18 firefighters to receive paramedic training by 2008.

Enhancing the department's services has been sought by officials since fire rescue took over basic life support from independent contractors in 2001. The city commission unanimously approved a resolution May 14 adjusting fees to include advanced life support services.

"It's been a work in progress," Plant City Fire Rescue Chief George Shiley said. "Our goal was to become very good at [basic life support]. The next level up was advanced life support."

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue has been Plant City's provider of advanced life support in the past. Taking that responsibility from the county gives residents a "continuity of service," Shiley said.

"We want to do the best for the city," Shiley said. "We wanted to be able to provide complete" emergency management services.

Six fire rescue personnel have been trained and certified as paramedics, Shiley said. Twelve more are enrolled in the program and are expected to receive their certifications in the coming months.

Emergency medical technicians, or EMTs, "support life on a basic level" by administering oxygen or monitoring cardiac signals and paramedics trained in advanced life support are like "doctors in the field" who can stabilize patients and dispense medication, Shiley said.

"It is a tremendous commitment," Shiley said of paramedic certification. "Our goal is to have everybody trained."

The base rate for basic life support is $300 and the advanced life support's rate is $350. There is also a mileage charge of $7 per patient per mile for both types of services. Additional charges can accrue depending on the severity of a patient's condition.

"Most of the time, those charges are covered by insurance, Medicare or Medicaid," Shiley said.

The fees are comparable to Hillsborough Fire Rescue, Tampa Fire Rescue and Temple Terrace Fire Rescue, City Manager David Sollenberger wrote in a report to city commissioners. The projected revenue generated by Plant City Fire Rescue for 2007-08, with advanced life support fees included, is $360,000, an increase of about $90,000 over the current year, Sollenberger said.

Former Mayor Mike Sparkman, a longtime proponent of having city-run, advanced life support services, was pleased.

"It's been a lot of work and a lot of struggle," Sparkman said. "It's such a big undertaking, and it's the proper move to make."

The city acquired basic life support services six years ago after officials were dissatisfied with an independent company's response time to calls. There was up to a 20-minute wait on many incidents, Shiley said.

"We shoot to have a unit there within four minutes," Shiley said of cases involving nonlife-threatening situations. "People need to be assisted in a timely manner."

Shiley said his department is working to have advanced life support units arriving at a scene within eight minutes on average, because there are not as many paramedics on staff as emergency medical technicians and that the paramedics may be out on another call or taking patients to hospitals outside of city limits.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 865-4433 or rreyes@tampatrib.com

Photo credit: Tribune photo by JIM REED

Photo: Fire rescue paramedics Nathan Powell, left, and Jeff Griggs check supplies inside their fire rescue truck at Fire Station 1.

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