Missing From the Falls Fire Department: Paramedics

When you call 911 for a medical emergency in Menomonee Falls, you wait a few anxious minutes before the paramedics arrive to treat the one in need, right?

Actually, you’re wrong.

If the ambulance says on the side, you’ll be waiting a long time before the paramedics arrive. That’s because the department doesn’t have a certified paramedics service. The crew that arrives on the scene is comprised of basic emergency medical technicians (EMT) and intermediate EMTs.

When grouped with three other communities of comparable size in Waukesha County, Menomonee Falls is the only community that doesn’t have paramedics responding to calls. Brookfield, Waukesha and New Berlin all have paramedics riding in the ambulance to calls.

Even communities that pale in size compared to Menomonee Falls have paramedics on their emergency crews. Lisbon, Elm Grove and Thiensville have the service that isn’t available in Menomonee Falls.

“We don’t have anyone clamoring or knocking at the doors out here about this because the citizens believe we already have paramedics,” said Falls Fire Chief Jeffrey Hevey. “That’s the perception out there, but it’s false.”

Ironically, Hevey said the department actually has 15 members who on their own paid for the $6,000 training courses and are certified paramedics. However, the department hasn’t received certification from the state, and a tight municipal budget has kept it from doing so. Therefore, those who are trained as paramedics are limited to the tasks of an EMT.

“We actually have a few from our staff that work some shifts down in Lisbon to keep their paramedic skills sharp,” Hevey said.

What’s the difference?

Hevey said the EMTs who are currently on his staff do a great job, and are highly trained and prepared for situations. However, the scope of life-saving services they can perform is limited.

A basic EMT can only use proper techniques to stop bleeding, splint a broken bone, immobilize a patient, and give them oxygen. An intermediate EMT can start an I. unit, give some breathing treatments, and assist people with taking medication like aspirin. But an intermediate EMT cannot administer the same range of medications.

For the most part, EMTs can stabilize patients before they reach the hospital for treatment. Paramedics, on the other hand, can treat patients before they reach the hospital and have a wider range of skills and procedures they can employ.

“They have a higher awareness of the body and its functions because of their extended amount of training,” Hevey said. “Their assessment of patients is much more advanced.”

Paramedics can also administer medications to stabilize patients who are having life-threatening heart arrhythmias. An EMT can only monitor the heart rate, and hope to reach the hospital in time to stabilize the patient. A paramedic can administer medication to someone who is having a seizure, which prevents multiple seizures. An EMT cannot.

“We recently had a call where a woman in town was having seizures,” Hevey said. “We could have given her medication that would have stopped the seizures, but we weren’t allowed.”

Paramedics can also insert breathing tubes through the trachea, plant IVs into bone, and give a person pain medication. Hevey said they recently called in mutual aid for a patient experiencing extreme back pain. The other municipality sent over their paramedic, so Falls could transport the man to .

Hevey said the live-saving treatment paramedics offer can also improve overall outcomes for patients.

“It’s well documented that immediate advanced life support care, at the scene when the patient just had the event, reduces the time they stay in the hospital and the quality of care when they leave is better than people who have not received that advanced life support,” he  said.

Hevey said advanced life support like this is even more important given the demographics of Menomonee Falls. He said the average age of patients on medical transport calls is now 62 years old, which is up from 52 years old just a decade prior.

“We have a community here that has a significant amount of residential facilities with older people,” Hevey said. “We have a lot of nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and there more planned to come.”

The department is also quite busy. Through the end of October, the department responded to 1,616 basic and advanced life support emergency calls. Hevey said that puts the department on pace for 1,930 in 2011. That’s 150 more than the 1,780 calls that came in 2010.

By comparison, Sussex, which offers a paramedics service, responded to 2,809 calls from 2005 to 2010.

Getting paramedics in Menomonee Falls

Hevey said the first battle to bring paramedics to the Falls is to dispel the false perception amongst residents that they are already here. Secondly, it’s about finding the money.

Earlier in summer, Falls joined the Germantown, Lisbon, Lannon and Richfield fire departments to discuss collaborating and working together to share the costs of a paramedics program in the area. But the stormy cloud of Act 10, the state's new collective bargaining law that was hanging over municipalities during their summer talks, forced Falls take a step back from the discussions.

“When this came out this summer we had no idea where we were going with our budget,” Hevey said.  “But we are hoping we can move forward with this in the latter part of 2012.”

Hevey said there would be an initial cost of roughly $100,000 to start a paramedics program. Continuing the service would run roughly $300,000 annually, which is mostly wages and benefits for the paramedics. It's a hard sell in front of village leaders, who are now restricted from raising the tax levy unless there's new construction.

Other costs include purchasing medication and a new defibrillator. Ideally, Hevey would like to have two paramedics on call seven days a week for a morning shift and a night shift.

Resident wants to help out

In an effort to get a paramedic service started here, former Wauwatosa alderman and current Menomonee Falls resident Dick Bachman is hoping to repeat the success he found more than 30 years ago in Tosa, the city he served for 24 years.

In 1974, Bachman and his wife helped raise the funds to give the paramedics program a leg up in Wauwatosa. He solicited donations that were placed into a fund and used only for the paramedics program. The program has been in place ever since.

“We really want to get the public behind this,” Bachman said. “EMTs can only give temporary relief and rush patients to the hospital. Paramedics do save lives.”

Bachman, now 81 years old, is continuing to do what he does best — serve his community. Bachman, along with late wife, Gloria, won the 2010 Wauwatosa Distinguished Citizen Award. He also was the 2007 Milwaukee County Senior Citizen of the Year.

Although the plans are in their early stages, Bachman hopes to organize a fundraising effort in Menomonee Falls. Details are still being worked out, but plan to hear more from Bachman in the near future.

“We need to keep pounding this to keep the people active and moving on this,” Bachman said.

Hevey said awareness is step one. If residents in the Falls aren’t in need of a paramedics service, Hevey said he’s more than happy to serve them with their current set up.

“I want to educate the people of Menomonee Falls about the level of service that we have here,” Hevey said. “I am happy to support whatever level of service the citizens want to have, but they need to know this.”