Help boost ambulance service.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Dennis Murphy For The Register-Guard

Twenty-one years ago, FireMed ambulance membership was created in Eugene and Springfield to serve two purposes - to make ambulance service affordable to everyone, and to raise money for continuous improvements in the quality of emergency medical services.

FireMed has succeeded in both endeavors, and has grown from the Eugene-Springfield area to create an award-winning system serving most of the state.

A FireMed membership provides ambulance service as often as needed for all people in the same household at no additional out-of-pocket cost. Today, FireMed serves the largest geographic region in the nation - a network of 72 participating ambulance operations serving more than 1.5 million people over 63,000 square miles. Efforts are under way to add more than 30,000 square miles of coverage and expand reciprocal member benefits.

Your local FireMed program is operated by a partnership between Eugene Fire & EMS, Springfield Fire & Life Safety, and Lane Rural Fire Rescue. This year we've added a new partner in REACH Air Medical Services. It also includes support from 16 fire agencies who receive FireMed funding for medical equipment. This network is composed of first response agencies of the Lane County Fire Defense Board that serve city and rural areas throughout the region.

Just a few of the improvements made possible through contributions by FireMed members include state-of-the-art advanced life support equipment for ambulances and first response fire units, the addition of local air ambulance service, illness and injury prevention programs, and discounts for employee groups through the FireMed JobCare program.

In emergency medical services, lives are saved by having the right people arrive with the right equipment at the right time. When breathing and heartbeat stop as a result of illness or injury, survival decreases 10 percent for each minute that passes. And those who are critically injured in rural or remote areas must be transported back to the hospital for surgery in what is known as the `golden hour.'

By adding air ambulance service, many more people will have the `golden opportunity' to survive. During the trip to the hospital, the sick and injured are attended to by a two-person team made up of a flight nurse and flight paramedic. Living in one of the nation's premier outdoor recreation areas, this turns out to be a big deal.

Sometimes a life depends on emergency critical care transfer from a local hospital to a specialty center in Portland. Once again, the air ambulance can speed a patient to the treatment center in a fraction of the time, bypassing traffic and traveling faster.

The future of our emergency medical services system depends on support from the community. Public opinion surveys consistently rank EMS and ambulance service among the most valued services. However, unlike fire and police protection, ambulance services are heavily dependent on user fees and FireMed member contributions for quality of service. Simply put, if you value your life as much as your property, you will want to consider joining FireMed.

With many worthy causes to contribute to, it's altogether too easy to decide to let someone else do the heavy lifting and take it for granted that everything will be OK.

Programs with voluntary membership such as FireMed may be taken for granted as part of the fabric of society. In a flash, a medical emergency or serious injury will change all of that. Suddenly, when the sirens are for us, the priority will be clear.

It's not often that we get the opportunity to do something good for the community and at the same time take care of our own needs. FireMed provides just that opportunity. Regardless of whether a member household uses ambulance service once or 20 times, there is no cost to the member.

On the other hand, if you don't use ambulance service, your money goes to support a system that provides top quality services throughout the community 24 hours a day.

That is why the FireMed slogan is `save money - save lives.' Now more than ever, joining FireMed makes the critical difference. Please join me in supporting your fire department paramedics and EMTs in their lifesaving efforts. Do it for yourself, do it for someone you love, do it for your community - but do it.

Springfield Fire Chief Dennis Murphy is the founder of FireMed Ambulance Membership. FireMed may be contacted at www.firemed.org or 726-3636.