Results of Washington County fire and EMS study released
The final results of a study to suggest improvements to Washington County’s fire and EMS service has been released by VFIS, based in York, Pennsylvania.
McMurray residents will be interested to known that 28 recommendations were included in the study amongst which were the suggestions for improvements to financing the service.
While fundraising has been used in the past, a revenue stream that is both defined and sustainable should be established to ensure the fire and EMS infrastructure needs. Moreover, the purchase of apparatus should be conducted via group plan and EMS throughout the county should utilize a sole billing provider.
Recommendations for the handling of fire and EMS personnel were included. The creation of a countywide application has been suggested for volunteer membership and a background check should be included in the application process. The use of a “cafeteria” plan to help departments meet the requirements of companies’ members to incentivize volunteering and the creation of an exit interview form to assist in identifying opportunities to increase retention of members in the future. Local print shops are a good source of customized applications, background check forms and exit interview forms.
Among the suggestions was one concerning the many blind intersections within the county as well as those intersections that have no feature to control traffic for emergency vehicle movement or that are simply too heavily traveled for safe emergency vehicle egress.
McMurray residents will be interested to known that 28 recommendations were included in the study amongst which were the suggestions for improvements to financing the service.
While fundraising has been used in the past, a revenue stream that is both defined and sustainable should be established to ensure the fire and EMS infrastructure needs. Moreover, the purchase of apparatus should be conducted via group plan and EMS throughout the county should utilize a sole billing provider.
Recommendations for the handling of fire and EMS personnel were included. The creation of a countywide application has been suggested for volunteer membership and a background check should be included in the application process. The use of a “cafeteria” plan to help departments meet the requirements of companies’ members to incentivize volunteering and the creation of an exit interview form to assist in identifying opportunities to increase retention of members in the future. Local print shops are a good source of customized applications, background check forms and exit interview forms.
Among the suggestions was one concerning the many blind intersections within the county as well as those intersections that have no feature to control traffic for emergency vehicle movement or that are simply too heavily traveled for safe emergency vehicle egress.