Tuesday, May 6, 2008
South County has a Medical Problem
My concerns about the quality of the staff at the Mehlville Fire Department continue to grow with each and every experienced member we lose to another district. When you add this to the problems they are experiencing with the staffing in the emergency room at St. Anthony's Hospital, we have a crisis. As reported by the local media several months ago, emergency room physicians were told they were no longer going to be employed by the hospital. They are now employed by an outside contractor. Most physicians refused to accept this arrangement and moved on to positions elsewhere in the St. Louis area. This has left the emergency department understaffed and unable to service our community. Ambulances are now being diverted away from St. Anthony's on a regular basis. We now have inexperienced emergency personnel, unfamiliar with our community, transporting patients to the only hospital we have, which doesn't have enough doctors to treat the them. This doesn't bode well for anyone who needs emergency treatment.
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15 comments:
People of Green Park are suffering the most. Not only do they not have an ambulance at night, but if the other ambulances are coming from outer region hospitals, how long will it take?
The BOD are saying that all the firetrucks have the same stuff an ambulance has,can the firetruck get me or my family to the closest hospital? How many Green Park residents have suffered because the ambulance is not always staffed? A questions that needs to be answered.
How many nights has the BOD families gone without an ambulance? All these new people, do they have all the qualifications? Do they need to go to the fire school? How many more nights will we have to go without an ambulance?
Now that it is a year from when the one seat is open they want to hire to staff that ambulance. What kind of below average employee are they going to hire.
I for one will let everyone know that the "tax rollback" (lol) has not helped any of us!By the way if anyone has seen the $400 savings let me know!
You people must be totally blind. If anyone of you would have been at the last couple of board meetings you would have know that the board was going to hire nine new people to staff the 5th ambulance on a 24 hour basis also thay were going to add a fourth person on the two fire trucks that did not have an ambulance out of there fire houses. Before you start bashing the MFPD get the head our of your ass and find out what really is going on until then keep your damn mouth shut.
Now there you go trying to irritate me. And I've been so polite. First, it's difficult for people who want to attend meetings to attend them at the MFPD. They have not been posted as required by law. If you request to be notified, you get removed from the notification list if they don't like what you write about. Third, they do not record minutes at the meetings as required by the sunshine law. If anyone is ignorant of recent board activity, it is because of reaccuring violations of Missouri's Open Meeting Laws by the board and the district. If the board has decided to finally start staffing the ambulance appropriately, then I say yippee! Please be more courteous to our readers. It is both a liberal and conservative concept.
Dear 2:18 not once do I believe I said they were not hiring to put people on the ambulance. My questions have not been answered. Please refer to above. I do not consider the board a member of MFPD. I am sure they dont pay union dues or anything. I am trying to understrand the BOD. The 4:00 - 5:00 board meetings are so convient for us working people to attend.
looks like 2:18 had hit a nerve. I agree we are losing great personnel. I have one simple question "why?" To answer 2:18 comment to pull my head out of my you know what, I did find the truth. How much experience can a brand new medic learn from an EMT rather than a seasoned Paramedic (which there aren't any at Mehlville) and if you say on the job training, I hope it isn't me they are training on. Sure school can teach you what you need to know to pass the test but there is something called real world. We need to stop this childish behavior happening between the men/women and the board. We have Hilmer and the 2 puppets totally making it known they are in charge and go through the papers to make that way. Whether it be the petty bull$&%^ they like to pull or trying to do things illegally (i/e tax decrease "to close the lid to the employee toy box and forever throw away the key" were hilmers exact remarks) That would make me want to work harder at my job if I worked for him....not!
And we have the men/women. Sure there were some things that needed to be looked at and fixed but a lot of the items they are taking away, to me, are just to say they can take them away. And as far as the harrassment charge going down....who knows about that, I just think Hilmer hasn't seen his name in the paper in a while and needs something to do.
Gee, I always thought that cursing was the refuge of the uneducated!
Did something change?
Tom Ford
Tom,
I agree but I can't cast any stones here.
It's interesting we look at the service provided in the district. In December 2007 I was in a car accident that required ambulance support. Once one arrived, Mehlville EMT's tried to insert an IV line into my right hand (my left arm was potentially broken) and missed 7 times. Then they tried my right wrist twice, then shaved my right hand and tried again, then shaved my left hand and missed 5 times, then finally got the IV in my left wrist after 3 attempts. Needless to say that didn't feel very good. Then I was taken to St. Anthony's emergency room. I had potentially internal bleeding (I had blacked out twice in the ambulance and once in the ER) yet had to wait on the gurney bed for FIVE HOURS before anyone even checked on me, and then it was only for X-rays. I entered the hospital at 4:30 pm and left, after a doctor's examination, at 12:30 am......EIGHT HOURS! For an ER visit with injuries! So I can attest to the medical problems. When I tell people this story they advise me to pay the extra cost to transport to Missouri Baptist. Sad.
Medics fresh out of school are great!
I doo believe that it has come time for South County to get another hospital.
Oakville, Arnold or maybe the Imperial area.
Here it is a Saturday afternoon and St. Anthonys is on Diversion.
I like St. Anthony's Hospital and I really don't think we are going to get another one, but this isn't right!
1:04 I gues that was an attempt at being funny. I can't believe you'd want an inexperienced Paramedic evaluating and treating a family member in a serious situation.
Experience doctors kill people:
7:28 You should consider doing comedy, elsewhere.
I AM DOING COMEDY WHEN I READ YOUR DAMN BLOG: HA HA HA
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