Protecting public health and safety is among the most important duties of government at all levels. At the county level, that largely means emergency services. I am pleased with recent progress in promoting a cooperative working relationship between Ada County Paramedics and the various fire departments and agencies.
I attend meetings of the Ada County Fire Chiefs’ Association and have been encouraging Ada County Paramedics leaders to work cooperatively with the fire agencies. Within the past six months, Boise Fire also hired an Emergency Medical Services coordinator, who has also been working on creating a more collaborative working relationship.
Joint training exercises with Ada County paramedics and fire medics have now taken place and will continue. Ada County has also proposed joint staffing of our ambulances with Boise and Meridian fire medics.
Arguably, however, the biggest accomplishment of the newfound spirit of cooperation between agencies has been the resolution of a radio communications issue.
For at least the past 15 years, fire agencies and Ada County paramedics were not using the same radio frequencies when responding to 9-1-1 calls. Units responding to the same incident have been unable to communicate directly with each other and have had to have messages relayed through dispatch.
Doing things the old way causes more work for dispatchers, and is inefficient. Soon, a 90-day trial will take place in which EMS calls will be handled on common radio channels.
Getting fire agencies and Ada County Paramedics on the same radio frequency at any given incident will ensure that we are all doing our best to protect public health and safety.