Letter for March 21, 2022
Support the Spokane Fire Department levy
On the April special election ballot is the renewal of the levy to support our Spokane Fire Department. The role of the EMS emergency medical response provided by our fire-based EMTs and Paramedics is a key to the successful prevention of three of the major causes of premature death and disability that hurt the people of our community.
On a regular basis and in partnership with our hospitals we assess the quality of our EMS systems performance regarding each of these time critical emergency conditions. Our performance is consistently above average and the results are measured in lives saved as well as disability prevented. One of the greatest challenges in emergency medicine is cardiac arrest. Here again, our EMS system produces far above average survival rates of people who return to their families and a healthy life.
The COVID-19 pandemic required immediate adaptation of our emergency response and was a real stressor of our EMS system. However, the system never failed to answer priority calls within minutes of the call to 911. The leadership demonstrated by the EMS officers and providers of the Spokane Fire Department was amazing and something I will never forget. Within days measures were taken to ensure our ability to maintain our emergency response during the pandemic with protection for our patients, our EMS responders and our teammates at our receiving hospitals.
This levy, supporting a rapid lifesaving emergency response, is the best bargain in health care today.
Jim Nania, M.D., FACEP
Medical program director, Spokane County EMS
Liberty Lake