By Eric Bradley
Contra Costa Times
LONG BEACH, Calif. — As the Long Beach Fire Department struggles to find fat to trim after years of reductions, officials are considering putting a single paramedic on each responding vehicle instead of running two-paramedic teams.
Fire command staff and city officials are presenting the switch as a way to shorten response times by requiring fewer paramedics in the system, cutting more than $1 million in spending as required in the proposed fiscal year 2013 budget.
The response-time improvement would occur by placing more paramedic units in the field, going from two paramedics on eight ambulances to one paramedic and one emergency medical technician on 11 units, according to LBFD Chief Mike DuRee.
Full story: Long Beach Fire Department considers single paramedic response system