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ORANGE COUNTY FIRE RESCUE STUDY <br />ORA1vGE COUNTY EMS <br />1 <br />2 The EMS delivery organization is over-burdened and human resources over- <br />3 worked. Paramedics and EMTs currently work a 24 hour shift. It is not unusual for <br />4 a paramedic to work more than 80 hours in a work week and more than 320 hours <br />5 in a 28 day cycle. The staff is exhausted. This shift configuration is a dangerous <br />6 one for medical personnel as they require their best mental acuity under the County's <br />7 program. This is well above the FLSA maximum prior to overtime of 56 hours per week <br />8 and 216 hours during a 28 day cycle. <br />9 <br />10 Because of the current staffing levels, management has less time to manage and <br />11 thus many of the quality assurance activities are Left undone. <br />12 <br />13 The Division does not make full use of technology and still operates on a paper- <br />14 based approach to documentation. <br />15 <br />16 There is no unit north of Hillsborough at the North Orange Rescue Squad station. <br />17 This dramatically affects response times and patient care. It also places a burden on <br />18 fire department first responders as they are required to provide care over a longer <br />19 period of time. <br />20 <br />21 While it is expected that the Medical Director would be involved in trawling, <br />22 Orange County's Medical Director is overly involved in the base details of training <br />23 as there is no full time training coordinator/instructor. <br />24 <br />25 The Division does not have a suffia.ent number of ambulance units. <br />26 <br />27 <br />28 Recommendations <br />29 <br />30 Should the County adopt our recommendation to merge the North Orange County <br />31 Rescue Squad into the EMS Division, it should consider renovating the Rescue <br />32 Squad's facility for use as EMS headquarters, providing room for training, <br />33 deployment, offices for EMS and volunteer rescue squad members as well. <br />34 <br />35 We recommend the Division change the work shift schedule from a four shift to a <br />36 three shift rotation and change the 24 hour shift to a split shift arrangement of no <br />37 more than 14 hours. <br />90 <br />