By Dave Statter
dstatter@wusa9.com
STATter 911 — http://www.statter911.com
WUSA9 — http://www.wusa9.com
WASHINGTON — EMS workers union president Kenneth Lyons is unhappy over how a new program to station a paramedic at a Washington, DC hospital has been implemented. So unhappy that one of Lyon’s union officials twice went to Greater Southeast Community Hospital to warn members about potential liability if they accept a DC Fire & EMS overtime assignment at the hospital. But the president of AFGE Local 3721 denies his official made insensitive remarks about a medic’s Hispanic heritage.
Both Lyons and DC Fire and EMS spokesman Battalion Chief Kenneth Crosswhite, confirm an investigation is underway into exactly what happened and what was said at the hospital on Thursday and Friday. According to sources familiar with the investigation, an Hispanic paramedic working overtime at the hospital on Friday claims one his own union officials told him if he didn’t like Local 3721’s position in this dispute he should quit the union and “go back to his own country”.
The sources say the union official was on-duty, assigned to an ambulance when Friday’s confrontation occurred. A day earlier, the same union official had stopped by the hospital on his day-off to provide a similar warning.
The veteran paramedic had been chosen to work the first two 12-hour shifts of the pilot program. Under the plan, DC Fire and EMS will staff the hospital emergency room at peak hours in an effort to reduce drop times for city ambulance crews. The paramedic, assigned to the emergency department at the hospital, would care for up to two low priority patients until hospital personnel could take over patient care. This could allow the ambulance and medic unit crews to return to service more rapidly. DC Fire and EMS is also working on a similar program where the department would hire physician assistants to take on this role.
Kenneth Lyons tells 9NEWS NOW that this is a new job description for his members. Lyons claims the department did not provide details of the program to his union prior to its implementation. Lyons says the union official in question was operating within his role as an officer of Local 3721. Lyons believes there is potential for liability with paramedics taking on jobs they are not necessarily trained for.
Department spokesman Crosswhite says that the program will continue without using Local 3721 members. According to Chief Crosswhite, the hospital position will now be staffed with higher ranking civilian paramedics who are not members of Local 3721 and firefighter/paramedics who are members of a different union (IAFF Local 36).
In the meantime, an investigation has been launched into the actions of the union official.