Kansas

[MFD76]

Are the squads in witicha ems??

 

They are all fire department units are basic life support and all firemen are EMT's. There are a number of firemen who carry paramedic cards but the fire department is not ALS. The Squads do respond to the majority of the EMS runs. Although there are a few houses without Squads and the Engine or Truck will take the alarm.

 

In Kansas by state statue the counties are responsible for determining who will provide ems transport service basic or advanced. In Sedgwick County the county operates the EMS Transport system and it is advanced life support. In Kansas City Kansas the unified government chose to have KCKFD provide the EMS Transport System. In Shawnee County (Topeka) they decided to contract with American Medical Response. In Johnson County (KC Metro) the county provides 911 advanced life support EMS transport and contracts all non emergency transfers to AMR. In Barton County they choose to have Great Bend Fire Department operate the EMS transport. Great Bend provides basic life support EMS transport with advanced life support capability if a firemen paramedic is working. Cowley County choose to split their county and Winfield Hospital provides basic life support with advanced life support capability to northern Cowley County (soon to be Winfield Fire Department with full time ALS) and Arkansas City Fire Department provides full time advanced life support EMS transport to the southern half of Cowley County and northern Oklohoma. There are many counties in Kansas that have part-time or volunteer EMS Transport Systems. Some are only able to provide basic life support or carry split transport licenses that allow them to operate as a basic life support service with advanced life support capability if a paramedic is present. Many of these situations are present because of the large pay and retention disparity between metro departments and micro departments and the education cost and initial certification education time commitment for the part-time or volunteer departments. Education for an EMT certification is slightly longer than a traditional college semester and Paramedic is only taught through the community college system and is one year full-time spring-summer-fall-winter. Some community colleges do offer a shift rotation friendly program that takes two years.