Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Las Vegas NV Gets Patch

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 22:48:55 -0400

-------- Original Message --------
From: hithel woods <[email-masked]>
Subject:  Las Vegas NV Gets Patch

Fire department, medics get communications upgrade
By Jen Lawson 

LAS VEGAS SUN 

Emergency medical personnel responding to the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks 
didn't have the capability to communicate with other
agencies, and before last 
week, neither did Las Vegas Fire and Rescue
paramedics. 

A $650,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security has allowed 
the fire department to upgrade its radio system,
enabling fire department 
medics to communicate with medics from Southern
Nevada's two private ambulance 
companies, Southwest Ambulance and American Medical
Response. 

"It's a little tiny thing that most people in the
community won't realize, 
but to us it's a milestone," Las Vegas Fire and Rescue
spokesman Tim Szymanski 
said. "It will allow us to provide better service to
the community." 

Before this, the fire department medics and private
ambulance medics 
responding to the same emergency sent messages to each
other via two dispatchers. 
For example, if a fire department medic wanted to tell
a private ambulance 
medic to get a certain piece of equipment from a
vehicle, the message would be 
given to a fire department dispatcher, who would pass
it along to the 
ambulance company's dispatcher. That dispatcher would
then communicate the message 
to the ambulance company medics. 

The new system "cuts down on several middlemen and
time," said Debra Dailey, 
paramedic supervisor with Southwest Ambulance. "We
deal in seconds and 
minutes, and every second and minute counts with us," 
The fire department radios have been reprogrammed to
make them compatible 
with 100 new portable radios that have been installed
in AMR and Southwest 
ambulances. 

The system is currently in a 90-day test period. It
launched June 14 and also 
involves the Henderson Fire Department. 
Fire department officials chose Henderson to be on
board with the pilot 
program because the department is smaller than the
Clark County Fire Department, 
and if there are any glitches in the system it will
require less effort to fix 
them, Szymanski said. 

The Clark County, North Las Vegas and Boulder City
fire departments will be 
added to the system after the trial period, officials
said. 

In a second phase, which is to begin next month, new
radios will be installed 
at each of the valley's hospitals. This will let
emergency medical personnel 
talk directly with emergency room and trauma center
personnel rather than 
relaying messages through two dispatchers. 
At some point, Szymanski said a system will probably
be created to allow fire 
and police departments to talk directly. Currently
firefighters and police 
use cell phones to communicate. 

Under the current system, if a paramedic is assaulted
while trying to 
administer medical care, the medic would "have to call
911 like everyone else," 
Szymanski said. 

Date: Wed Jul 21, 2004 9:39pm

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