Department Report – September 2008

** The PDF version of this report may be downloaded here!

Runs

For the month of September 2008

  • New Miami 48 from 57 last month
  • St. Clair Township 59 from 50 last month
  • Seven Mile (mutual aid) 3 from 0 last month
  • Trenton (mutual aid) 1 from 0 last month
  • Hamilton (mutual aid) 2 from 3 last month
  • Madison (mutual aid) 0 from 0 last month
  • Wayne (mutual aid) 2 from 0 last month
  • Ross (mutual aid) 0 from 1 last month

Monthly Total: 115 from 111 last month and 93 for September 2007

2008 totals as of the end of the month

  • New Miami 384
  • St. Clair Township 442
  • Seven Mile (mutual aid) 10
  • Trenton (mutual aid) 9
  • Hamilton (mutual aid) 10
  • Madison (mutual aid) 2
  • Wayne (mutual aid) 13
  • Ross (mutual aid) 1

YTD Total: 871 from 777 at this time in 2007

Training

Training conducted during the month:

  • September 9th 2008 – Duke Energy – Natural Gas Training – with simulator
  • September 30th 2008 – Run Reports and QA – Mandatory – cancelled

Upcoming Trainings:

  • October 2008 – various dates – Basic EMT Refresher

Incidents

There were no reportable incidents during the month of September

The member injured in the wet floor incident in June is still currently off work.

Safety

Our newly appointed Safety Coordinator Jeff Flynn has hit the ground running.During the month of September informal training was held on “Seatbelts”.

All station fire extinguishers have been inspected, several have been serviced and several have been moved to more properly distribute that resource throughout the station.

Membership

  • Member Zach Short is currently on Military Leave
  • Member Sandie Cheek is currently on Medical Leave
  • Member James Crim is currently on Personal Leave for Paramedic School

Member Marci Gasteneau has returned to active service and is currently working to finish her clearance as a new EMT. She has an approved shift waiver for limited shifts due to school obligations.

Inactive Member Mike Farthing has been removed from the roster. EMT-I Farthing verbally resigned from the department due to moving out of the area. A written resignation has not been received.

Multiple inactive members have been removed from the roster. These members are:

  • Pam Isaacs – Extended period of no shifts and no contact
  • Lyndale Justice – Extended period of no shifts
  • Dustin Pearson – Extended period of no shifts
  • David Scott – Extended period of no shifts

A member is considered inactive after 30 days without serving a shift. A member is considered resigned after 90 days of no shifts and no contact.

Several new members have also been removed. These members were accepted for membership but after extended periods of time have still not initiated even the first steps in probationary training. These members are:

  • Nathan Pierani
  • Blake Evans
  • Eric Prebles

New members Paramedic Teri Meade and Paramedic Ben Barnes have begun probationary training and are currently running shifts under supervision.

Hiring process status:

  • James Gray – EMT Basic – Completed initial interview 9/23/2008
  • Matthew Sparto – Trainee – Completed initial interview 9/23/2008
  • Terry Shilling – Trainee – Completed initial interview 9/23/2008
  • Nicole Anderson – EMT Basic – Awaiting initial interview
  • Charles Kimbrell – Trainee – Awaiting initial interview.

Our current staffing is:

  • Paramedics: 9
  • Intermediate EMTs: 3
  • Basic EMTs: 9
  • Trainees (non-certified): 6

Total Members: 27

Total Certified Members: 21

Effective Certified Staffing: 15 (3 leave, 1 waiver, 2 probationary)

* Note that for a 30 day month it requires 20 certified members reliably running 6 volunteer shifts in order to properly cover the first out squad.

3 certified members did not meet shift requirements for September.

Operations

Department shift coverage struggled during the month of September. Inactive members and sub-par member performance in some cases is still hampering coverage. In previous months other members covered additional shifts, but that extra effort was reduced in September. This may be partially due to the significant communications disruption from the mid-month storm making it especially hard to communicate the need for coverage.

There were no out of service periods for the month of September. There were four 6 hour volunteer shifts which did not have sufficient staffing for transport due to having only one EMT available. During this time, the EMT (Paramedic Steve Weigold) responded to multiple incidents but only one transport needed to be conducted by a neighboring department.

The electrical issues with both squad’s electrical systems are still outstanding as it has not been possible to coordinate the return of the units to Lifestar and obtain a loaner unit. This was further hampered by the mid-month storm and it’s after effects. Station power was out for an estimated five days. Station telephones were down for 7 days and the station servers and Internet connectivity were down for 10 days.

Multiple minor repairs to department vehicles have been completed. These included numerous lighting issues and one seat issue.

Efforts continue on the planning for a new squad vehicle. During the month of September, sales presentations occurred as noted:

  • September 3rd – Wheeled Coach
  • September 10th – Braun
  • September 16th – Horton – canceled due to storm issues

We are currently attempting to reschedule the meeting with Horton and setup a meeting with McCoy Miller. Once the demonstrations have been completed, we’ll develop a department specific specification for bid.

Due initially to storm related issues and more recently to an issue with the department Fleet credit card, several units have been fueled at Town Hall. We have logged the use of 115 gallons of diesel fuel during the month of September.

Public Relations

During the month of September the squad attended the Fishing for Friends special needs fishing derby at Lake Lynsday. The event was popular and well attended. It was also cut short due to the storm! Members have also been attending a full schedule of both New Miami and Edgewood High School football games.

Meetings

In the course of department operations, members attended official meetings as follows:

  • September 8th – St. Clair Township Trustees Meeting – Chief Steve Weigold
  • September 18th – New Miami Council Meeting – Chief Steve Weigold (interrupted by squad run!)
  • September 24th – Butler County EMS Council Meeting – Chief Steve Weigold

Chief Steve Weigold will be representing the department and the Butler County EMS Council as the delegate to the planning committee for the Safety Expo at the Fairgrounds in Spring of 2009.

Grants

Payment has been received from the Hamilton Community Foundation for the Communications Infrastructure Upgrade project grant.

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