Fire Away

Cleveland firefighters steamed at reduction in critical calls

This May, the city of Cleveland, Ohio, changed the way it responds to certain emergency calls, stirring up concerns from the local firefighters’ union.

Cleveland’s EMS and fire are two separate departments. Historically, both respond to all critical emergency medical calls. But recently, the city released a new policy that listed certain calls to be answered by EMS only, including assaults and stabbings, severe respiratory attacks, burns, choking and emergency baby deliveries. Fire department first responders are no longer dispatched to these specific calls.
Chester Ashton, president of IAFF Local 93 in Cleveland, says his local was blindsided by the decision. “EMS did this without consulting with us, and without consulting their own medical director,” he maintains. “Originally, we were told that we’d be removed from non-critical calls; that was to be an estimated 5 percent reduction in calls for us. But when we got a copy of the final policy, it included these critical calls as well—maybe three or four pages of them.”

Marty Flask, Cleveland public safety director, says that the new policy means a reduction of only three calls per day for the entire fire department. “Firefighters here in the city believe that they should be responding to all calls,” he says. “But in our opinion, we’re duplicating our efforts by sending both EMS and fire responders. And frankly, that’s a budgetary issue.”

The First First-Responders
Cleveland’s fire department is equipped for ALS; firefighters are EMTs or paramedics; the department has ALS rescue squads and just added a pumper that’s ALS. However, EMS is and has always been the primary ALS provider.

Ashton says his local’s concern over the May policy is about response time: “We’ve got a first responder program and because of our placement throughout the city, we’re usually able to get to the scene before EMS—and most of the time, even if we don’t get there first, they require our assistance,” he says.

Flask, on the other hand, says city statistics prove that when both are called, EMS and fire are neck-and-neck in arriving first on scene. “Half the time, EMS has been the first on the scene, and half the time, fire gets there first,” he says. “And we really don’t need both. It is clear that for some calls, firefighters are not needed; we’re no longer automatically sending them out to every emergency call.”

What Next?
Ashton says he is working with the EMS department’s medical director to reverse the policy and get fire back to responding to all critical calls.
“My understanding is that they’re going to put us back on those calls, but there’s been no word yet,” he reported in mid-June.

Flask, on the other hand, says that his department plans to keep the policy in place until it can be reviewed to see how it’s working. “This has been in place for about 90 days now. We’ll review it after 6 months,” he says, adding, “If this proves successful, we may make additional changes.”

Meanwhile, other than pushback from the firefighters union, he has not heard any complaints. “As for feedback from the community, we’ve had none whatsoever. For men and women on the street, they’re not even aware of this change.”