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NATIONAL REGISTRY By a vote of 12 to 5, the State Emergency Medical Services Board approved a requirement for all of Ohio Paramedic training programs to be nationally accredited. Advocates say this requirement will improve patient care. Critics say accreditation is costly and unnecessary. Currently, only five of the more than fifty paramedic training courses in Ohio are accredited, with another fourteen pursuing that status. Supporters of accreditation say Ohio's paramedics should meet national standards. But opponents, including Fire and EMS agencies, say Ohio already has standards that are higher than the national standards, and complain about the approximately $2000.00 cost for a program to be accredited.

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FIRE SUB-COMMITTEE REPORT from Chief Jim Steele

The Fire Committee continues to meet every other month as part of the Governors cost cutting initiative.

1) Life Safety Initiatives: The roll out to course directors was held on December 11, with 55 participants. Class was excellent. Train the trainer rollouts commence on April 12th, which is the next step in completing the imbedding in the 16 life safety initiatives in all FF1 and FF2 classes.

2) FF1A class: This process is just about complete. Another pilot was successfully held in SW Ohio. Future classes are being rolled out in the NE. The revisions to the course curriculum and the test are now complete. The Ohio Society of Fire Service Instructors will be conducting the instructor training meetings in all regions of the state. The Ohio Rural Fire Council will be responsible for any page updates listed in the curriculum. ie: if IFSTA changes something in the text, they will place the proper page number of the information on the instructor curriculum sheets. The class remains 36 hours in length, with the same pre-requisites. This class limits hazardous exposures due to safety concerns as described in the Ohio Administrative Code. Therefore, this course does not allow certified Fire Instructors to teach students in the type of hazardous environments to which their fire departments will be exposed. These activities include but are not limited to hot zone operations at structural or uncontrolled fires, auto accidents, hazardous materials situations considered to be immediately dangerous to life and health, and apparatus operations, the training for which is not provided in the Volunteer Firefighter course. These limitations being such as they are, the Fire Chief, or the authority having jurisdiction, must provide for training in these expanded areas if the firefighter is expected to function safely in these environments. The Fire Chief shall assume the risk and liability for deviating from any of the State and/or nationally recognized standards for firefighting. In brief, once certified at the volunteer level, the local department is required to provide the additional training to allow operation on the emergency grounds.

3) The Committee deals with appeals when a firefighter has lost his/her certification. Frequently this is a result of simply not going on-line to recertify. We are commonly finding that these people have no secondary e-mail address. So if they have changed their e-mail, and not notified the State, no notice is received by them. The Committee has recommended this secondary e-mail address be with the Chief of their department. Remember there is NO extension process. Once expired, the firefighter will need to take the certification test to regain their card.

4) 1403 Training: This continues to move forward slowly. Clearly, the Committee would agree that meeting once every other month is not productive for Ohio's Fire Service. We have a work group meeting scheduled for February 9 at Madison Township.

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PUBLIC HEARING STATE BOARD of EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES

NATIONAL ACCREDITATION of PARAMEDIC TRAINING PROGRAMS

FEBRUARY 24, 2010 9:15AM - 12:00PM

OHIO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AUDITORIUM

1980 WEST BROAD STREET, COLUMBUS, OHIO 43223

The State Board of Emergency Medical Services is seeking public comment on the following two options regarding the national accreditation of Ohio accredited Paramedic training programs:

Option 1 - Ohio accredited paramedic training programs must be nationally accredited through CoAEMSP by 2018. The examination recognized by the EMS Board for Ohio certification will be administered by the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians(NREMT)

Option 2 - Ohio accredited paramedic training programs will not be required to seek national accreditation. The examination recognized by the EMS Board for Ohio certification will be administered by an alternative testing service.

Guidelines for providing comments:

* Individuals interested in providing oral comments must also provide written copies of their comments to the EMS Board by February 10, 2010 at 4:00pm

* Oral comments to the Board will be limited to 3 minutes

* Individuals unable to attend the hearing should submit written responses to the EMS Board by February 10, 2010 at 4:00pm

* Comments must include the name, title, affiliation and e-mail address of the person making the comments.

* The EMS Board reserves the right to limit oral comments due to time limitations or duplication of issues.

Written comments should be sent to Aleta Dodson (AMDodson@dps.state.oh.us) or mail to:

Ohio Department of Public Safety

Emergency Medical Services Division

Attn: EMS Board Liaison

1970 West Broad Street

P O Box 182073

Columbus, Ohio 43218-2073

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Event Dates for 2009-2010:

Fire School March 13 & 14, 2010 BGSU

PreConvention April 17, 2010 Bradner

Bowling May 16 & 23, 2010 (12,3,6pm) Bascom FD

Convention June 18 & 19, 2010 Wauseon

Muster July 24 & 25, 2010 Morenci, Mi. FD

Softball August 7 & 8, 2010 (rain 14&15) Gibsonburg

Golf Sept. 18, 2010 (rain 25th) Hamler FD

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