Pacific Northwest

[johnward]

A crew of 5?

Yep, the two Medic One units in downtown Seattle, M1 and M10 are based at Harborview Medical Center (regional trauma center) and often run with crews of 4-5. They stay very busy and see a lot of action responding only to triaged ALS calls in the downtown, Capitol Hill and Central District parts of the city that has well over 200,000 people (including a significant homeless and drug addict population) and also includes a busy stretch of I-5 freeway and areas that still have gang violence. This means students and doctors/nurses riding with SFD see a broad scope of practice with codes, intubations, OD's, trauma calls, shootings/stabbings and pediatric calls on each shift.


The other Medic One units housed in firehouses in neighborhoods throughout the city typically run with two man crews. In Seattle BLS calls are responded to by BLS fire apparatus and transport is by private BLS ambulance. ALS calls are triaged by dispatch or arriving BLS units which mostly eliminates paramedics getting tied up on BS calls or transports and helps insure they spend their shifts seeing and assessing ALS patients.