Will County Gazette

At its Jan. 17 meeting, Joliet city council heard a presentation from Fire Chief Jeff Carey on closing the gap when it comes to health care needs for the city. 

"With the amount of health care shortage that we have now with nurses, doctors and mental health care workers, there's just not enough people to meet those needs," Carey said. "There are community paramedicine programs now where it's a different training. If we start our own, we can bridge that gap in health care where it's much needed. We look at our calls. About 20% of our ambulance calls, the people don't actually need to go to the E.R. With the community paramedicine program, we can sell those issues at home, saving our taxpayers thousands of dollars in the health care system."

Carey told council that firefighters are running various Community Risk Reduction (CRR) programs and he has seen a decrease in emergency mental health calls since their implementation.

The fire department has also taken steps to increase the survival rate for those in cardiac arrest who receive CPR before first responders arrive on scene. With the addition of new training and equipment, the survival rate has now reached 80%. 

The department is encouraging businesses to purchase Automated External Defibrillators (AED) to install inside their buildings. Businesses that do so will have free access to CPR and AED training provided by the fire department. 

This initiative hopes to increase medical response, training and available equipment throughout the community and ensure that everyone knows how to properly administer CPR and use an AED during a medical emergency.