I have worked as an EMT at a Chicago area provider for the last ten years, I have also been fortunate enough to do ride time with the CFD, having said all that the issues with Chicago EMS as a whole are vast and don’t lend to an easy solution.
As far as the private side goes there is a mutual aid component already in place called PPERS, this is only activated if the city and mabas become overwhelmed like during the 2007 Chicago Marathon. The bigger issue is that even if the city called on privates to take up some of the call volume I don’t think private providers could manage. It seems that all of the privates are struggling with staffing which I would attribute to the rising minimum wage in Illinois. This may seem like an odd view but with most grocery stores, Coronavirus aside, offering 12-15 an hour most fresh EMT’s either ride out six months on a private and go to paramedic school or they simply work in some other industry and apply into paramedic schools with zero experience. Most of the new hires I’ve had as partners as of late are only on an ambulance for clinical experience so that the can go in to nursing, PA, MD, etc...it’s become a stepping stone out of EMS.
I don’t want to speculate too much as to the CFD’s woes as I am not a member of the department but I can offer up some observation. It seems that the Paramedics on the department by and large do the best they can but there’s too little staff and certainly too little ambulances. Part of this is because of the city’s budgetary problems, but also the structure of procurement, leadership at CFD, and the union. Procurement is a problem because none of the apparatus, to my understanding belongs to CFD it technically belongs to Chicago fleet operations, the leadership issue is not one of incompetence or poor leadership but as some of you pointed out EMS in many departments is the red headed stepchild because fire runs the show, they need a medic at the head of CFD to better serve EMS especially considering how disproportionate the numbers are between fire runs and ambulance runs. Finally the union, there is nothing wrong with the Union but every single structural change within the department has to be negotiated by the union making it very difficult to be adaptive, this is also another reason you don’t see privates taking up any slack, a private provider fielding city calls opens the gate for further privatization thus weakening the union and all they have fought for.
Take this all with a heavy pinch of salt as I am no expert both on operations in the privates and in the CFD, I think everyone does the absolute best they can to manage here and provide the best patient care possible with the given situation.
As far as the private side goes there is a mutual aid component already in place called PPERS, this is only activated if the city and mabas become overwhelmed like during the 2007 Chicago Marathon. The bigger issue is that even if the city called on privates to take up some of the call volume I don’t think private providers could manage. It seems that all of the privates are struggling with staffing which I would attribute to the rising minimum wage in Illinois. This may seem like an odd view but with most grocery stores, Coronavirus aside, offering 12-15 an hour most fresh EMT’s either ride out six months on a private and go to paramedic school or they simply work in some other industry and apply into paramedic schools with zero experience. Most of the new hires I’ve had as partners as of late are only on an ambulance for clinical experience so that the can go in to nursing, PA, MD, etc...it’s become a stepping stone out of EMS.
I don’t want to speculate too much as to the CFD’s woes as I am not a member of the department but I can offer up some observation. It seems that the Paramedics on the department by and large do the best they can but there’s too little staff and certainly too little ambulances. Part of this is because of the city’s budgetary problems, but also the structure of procurement, leadership at CFD, and the union. Procurement is a problem because none of the apparatus, to my understanding belongs to CFD it technically belongs to Chicago fleet operations, the leadership issue is not one of incompetence or poor leadership but as some of you pointed out EMS in many departments is the red headed stepchild because fire runs the show, they need a medic at the head of CFD to better serve EMS especially considering how disproportionate the numbers are between fire runs and ambulance runs. Finally the union, there is nothing wrong with the Union but every single structural change within the department has to be negotiated by the union making it very difficult to be adaptive, this is also another reason you don’t see privates taking up any slack, a private provider fielding city calls opens the gate for further privatization thus weakening the union and all they have fought for.
Take this all with a heavy pinch of salt as I am no expert both on operations in the privates and in the CFD, I think everyone does the absolute best they can to manage here and provide the best patient care possible with the given situation.
