The Colony Fire Department re-thinking traditional roles
THE COLONY (CBSNewsTexas.com) - A North Texas fire department is re-thinking traditional roles to improve the way they fight fires and respond to medical calls.
About five years ago, The Colony Fire Department created a single-role paramedic program, likely the first of its kind in the state.
"They do it in Chicago, they do it in New York, but I believe we're the first to do it to this degree," said The Colony Fire Chief Scott Thompson.
The standard model at virtually all Texas departments is that firefighters double as paramedics.
"The best term I like to use is we're a jack of all, master of none," said firefighter Michael Powers, who's been with TCFD for nearly 12 years. "[Being a paramedic] was a great byproduct, and a lot of firefighters think of it that way, as a byproduct, not their primary focus."
TCFD wondered if there was a way to do things differently.
"Firefighting and delivering pre-hospital care is getting more and more complex," said Chief Thompson. "And my fear is we're pushing the capacity of the human mind to be able to function in very stressful situations at a very high level."
So The Colony started hiring skilled paramedics who weren't trained as firefighters.
"That is a big, big cultural shift – to have these non-firefighters living with you a third of your life," the chief said.
Jamie Dismuke, a paramedic who's now been with TCFD for three years, was initially concerned about how things would go.
"There was always these stories, you hear how they talk on calls, and those types of things,"said Dismuke. "Just the firehouse mentality was something I was very unsure of, especially being a female as well."
Firefighters were skeptical too.
"When we went to the paramedic-only program, which at first I wasn't the biggest fan of – I was worried that it was going to deviate from our overall mission or show division throughout the department – and I couldn't be any more wrong than I was," Powers said. "It brought us together."
TCFD says it allows firefighters to focus on their firefighting and rescue capabilities and paramedics to provide the highest level of care, while working side by side.
"We let firefighters be firefighters," said Chief Thompson. "We let them come in and do the job that they think firefighters should do, and that's really worked for us."
Firefighters in The Colony are still certified paramedics and train to keep those skills up-to-date, but the paramedic-only personnel take the lead on medical calls.
"It's been really, really successful for us," Thompson said. "We have data that shows it's really increased the quality of our pre-hospital care, and it's just been a really great program."
Chief Thompson has been fielding calls from other departments interested in making the change, as call volumes increase and more demands are placed on firefighters.
"Right now, just like in all industries and occupations, it's really difficult to find qualified people," he said.
He believes this program helps with both recruitment and retention, as both the city and the department have grown rapidly in recent years. When TCFD needed to hire nearly 30 people to fill two new fire houses, they could pull personnel from the private EMS sector.
"I think more departments should look at in in the light of, if they can do it so can we," Dismuke said. "It gives you this hope that there is a better way, better benefits and a togetherness that can come between fire, police and EMS."
