St. Mary's County, MD State of the County Videos, 22 Sep 2021

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From YouTube: State Of The County 2021 Emergency Services

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So department of emergency services has been really busy. We've we've got some major projects.

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That we're working on one of them is the animal shelter. That's a very exciting project.

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We, of course, had our groundbreaking earlier this year. They've actually got walls up. So that's very.

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Nice we do some drone uh pictures of that to see the progress so we're very excited. We think that.

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It'll be complete next summer and then we'll start filling it with staff so very exciting and it's.

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Very beneficial to all of our community. They won't have to go all the way up to charles county to do.

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An adoption or other services they need from the tri-county animal shelter. So that's great news. My.

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Staff is very excited to be, you know, working in in and about the shelter. So that's one of.

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Our projects, that's made a lot of progress on and again very excited. Another one is it's a software.

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Project but it's a major project: computer aided dispatch right now we have a system that assess us.

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That's probably about 20 years old might be a bit older than that, and the new system will bring us.

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Into expanded capabilities in so many ways, so that project is underway, we're doing our demos.

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And we hope to have a selection made by the fall of this year. But that's taken a lot of work over.

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The last year and a lot of people have helped us the fire department, the sheriff's department.

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Ems, our dispatchers have all had parts of selecting how we're going to be building that.

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Out but again, that's a very, very large project, another one very excited to be doing that so.

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The advantages are right now that, if anybody's familiar with dos, which is an old program that.

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You would do a command line for every single thing that you do and that's what our system is like.

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So everything we do, the dispatchers have to memorize and they will anyway to some extent but.

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They have to type in every command. New cads will have that, but there will be so many drop downs.

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So many different facets for me as director. The expanded capabilities are expanded data collection.

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And reports, which is what I worked with every day for the fire departments, there's a lot of build.

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Outs in the way that the cad is set up, that we can't do now and that new system will do that for.

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The sheriff's department, the cad, that we get, will have a records management system attached again.

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Their system is antiquated, so it's really going to result in a better service for our community.

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The community will be better served, I'm very happy with the progress and hopefully, by this time next.

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Year, we'll start to see the fruits of that so department. We are absolutely working with the iit.

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They are absolutely a partner and they will be and, and they are they are helping us select. So that's.

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That's really good news, um the last one that we worked on last year and everybody's probably aware.

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Is emergency medical services that during covid, we really had a tough time getting our volunteers to.

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Come out, some of them couldn't come out because of their full-time jobs, wouldn't let them run.

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Some were sick, some were afraid to all perfectly understandable, but it reduced the amount of people.

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We could put into ambulances so last october, I went to the commissioners and asked to hire a.

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Contractor and we did and that contractor assisted by providing emergency medical technicians that.

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We could put into the rescue squads has worked very well now we come to the budget. The budget.

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Foreseeing that this is going to be a long-term event, because volunteerism is reducing across.

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The nation: it's a lot different people have to be out working husband and wife.

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Right, the family unit all has to go out and work, so they just don't have as much time.

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To volunteer so that means we have to move into a career service, so we're doing that. So we now have.

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Approved 16 full-time positions, emts we have four medics and then we've also approved a.

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Number of hourly positions that will help to assist with that and moving forward.

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It's going to take a different different appearance for emergency medical services,.

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But we're going to get there and we're going to get there and and provide excellent service.

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um Excited but it's also a daunting task, but the community will be better served and I think it's.

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Going to work very well, so my staff here are working very hard to get this up and running.

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I have a wonderful staff, I'm thankful for and again it's going to result in a good service.

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For the community, so those are our major projects day to day we're just plugging along doing what.

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We're doing answering calls for service. Our animal control, of course, is out doing their job and.

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It's just it's been been a busy year been a good year, even in the face of covid, which has been.

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Been very difficult for us, but again we've responded very well and done a great job, so.

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So so again, the new positions coming on board are career services. That means we are paying.

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Full-Time employees, volunteerism volunteers are dedicated. They work very hard, however,.

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It's hard to keep them consistent, especially when they've got to go out and work, and then there's.

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Other draws on their life now we're building a system that is going to be. You know a structured.

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System that we know people that are going to be paid by the county that receive benefits.

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Retirement all of the benefits that we do as employees so now we've built a system where.

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We know they're going to be there they're on duty, so it absolutely is going to be a benefit to the.

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Community paramedics is the same way. It is going to be a career service very similar to charles.

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Calvert, prince george's county. It's going to take a little bit of time to build it completely out.

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But it's going to work and it's going to work well, so I'm confident we're going to do a good.

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Job with this, that means specifically, we will work and we will reduce the amount of time it.

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Takes for a person to get an ambulance, that's the critical point. It really is a life-saving.

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Initiative, this is what it's about is saving lives. We have to have ambulances and medics, paramedics.

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Get to people in need. You know I tell my my staff all the time that the the end user for this is.

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That person, sadly lying in the floor, calling for 9-1-1 or they've just been robbed or they've just.

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Been in a car wreck, that's who we serve! That's what this is going to do. This is going to ensure.

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That those services get to those people as quickly as possible, save lives and protect our way of life.

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Ems billing, so I know people are concerned, but this is what's important is that we are.

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Doing what's called soft billing so when we bill your insurance company will pay and they're going.

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To pay what they do, there's a certain percentage. Medicare is the same way: they'll pay what they do.

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If you cannot afford it, it doesn't matter we're going to come, we are going to be, there call 9-1-1.

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Never be afraid to if you cannot afford it, so what we're coming anyway.

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Always 100 ems billing is intended to help pay for the services that we're providing.

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It is a system that is intended to draw that payment from insurance companies and from medicare.

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And any other outside source that we're able to do it is not intended to punish or make our.

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Residents pay for a service that we're going to provide anyway, so please call 911, don't hesitate.