Running a piece for EMS?

[Picc.93Truck]

So with recent discussion at a Fireman's Relief meeting last night, they all brought up about purchasing a new command vehicle for our boro chief. With this purchase, the current command vehicle (Owned by my company, out of a 3 company boro) Will be put out of service. With this vehicle being free'd up, I figure why not run it as a QRV type deal to fire and EMS calls. Now I'm 98% sure that the SUV is going to need to be licensed as an EMS vehicle, like PA ambulances. Does anyone have any experience in this or know if you can have an EMS vehicle that still run's as a fire support vehicle? Is there information online I can obtain through EMS about this?

Again, no vehicle has been purchased yet, but knowing my relief, it will happen. nd I'd like the truck down as little amount of time as possible. And yes, we are stepping on the toe's of our boro's EMS, but they do not run a QRV.

[BoxAlarm187]

We've done this for about 20 years with a lot of success. We use a Suburban as our primary EMS response vehicle, and it can be used for manpower or a utility vehicle on fires or other incidents.

[Picc.93Truck]

That is exactly what I'm looking for in use of this vehicle. How did you go about getting that going, or getting the medical license on the vehicle?

[Bones42]

So you don't currently run on EMS calls...and your going to put a vehicle into service to now run on EMS calls? and haven't talked to the EMS agency about this?

[Picc.93Truck]

Bones, we haven't done anything yet... this is an idea...

[BoxAlarm187]

That is exactly what I'm looking for in use of this vehicle. How did you go about getting that going, or getting the medical license on the vehicle?

Sorry I missed this response earlier. The Virginia Office of EMS has a number of different EMS licenses available for different styles of vehicles (BLS Non-Transport, ALS non-transport, BLS transport, ALS transport, air medical, etc). The vehicle must comply with the standards set forth (in our case, BLS non-transport) to include compliant equipment, maintenance, lettering, paint, striping, radios, etc and be inspected and licensed by the Office of EMS.

An important thing to remember in our case is that the fire department must be a licensed EMS agency as well. We're licensed BLS non-transport. This might be something you have to verify in your state as well.

As for getting the program running, this was done around 1991, when the fire department approached the ambulance service with an offer to suppliment their response to life-threatening emergencies, as well as a first responder service as well. It was then as it is today - more fire stations than ambulance stations, placing the FD at a geographical advantage for timely arrival.