District of Columbia Hires Quality Control Leader Following Controversy Over Emergency Calls
The District's Fire Chief admits there are some problems with the care provided to people who call for an ambulance in the Nation's Capital. This comes after 9 News uncovered internal reports questioning the work being done by firefighters when they answer emergency medical calls.
Dr. Clifford Turen, a longtime volunteer firefighter, and the head of pediatric surgery at Maryland's Shock Trauma Center, is now the man in charge of making sure DC's paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians provide quality care to those who live in and who visit Washington, DC. But internal department reports written by civilian supervisors, about DC firefighters, paint a picture of less than quality care.
One report tells of a fire engine crew that went to a Northeast home and failed to notice that the patient was in cardiac arrest. Another report describes a paramedic firefighter who administered the wrong drug. In a separate case the same medic was criticized by a hospital over patient care. One paramedic evaluator wrote in June, "the department is ignoring the warning signs and continuously allowing untrained providers to work with no supervision or proper training".
Fire and EMS Chief Adrian Thompson is trying to implement a controversial, decades long, proposal to shift paramedic and other care away from a civilian work force to uniformed firefighters. Firefighters point out these reports are written by supervisors in the civilian work force who may have motive to make firefighters look bad. This is something Chief Thompson says he doesn't necessarily agree with.
Paramedic Kenneth Lyons, the head of the union representing the civilian workers, is unhappy that the new medical director doesn't have the background of leading a big city EMS system. Lyons believes there should have been a national search for the replacement of Dr. Fernando Daniels. Dr. Daniels was let go Friday. High ranking department sources confirm that Dr. Daniels was having doubts about the plans to make firefighters the primary care providers for EMS.
Chief Adrian Thompson strongly disagrees with paramedic Lyons views and says he didn't want to waste time searching around the country for an EMS director when he knew he could find the person he was looking for here in the region.
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