Chain of Command
Mercy EMS is commanded by the Chief of the Paramedic department. He is assisted by a Deputy Chief, and an administrative assistant. The Chief is ultimately responsible for the department and its employees, and co-operates with incident commanders and local Fire Department Officers when managing incidents. The department is divided into four full-time platoons each assigned four Paramedics and 11 EMTs. Each individual Paramedic is responsible for patient care and incident management, and are assisted by EMTs until the patient or incident can be transferred to a higher level of command or care. In the event that a Paramedic is not available or required, the EMT in charge is responsible until such time that the patient or incident can be transferred to a higher level of care or command. Since each incident faced by any EMS provider is ever-changing and completely unique, any multitude of different agencies and their representatives may be in ultimate command of the incident. During such incidents which require a multi-agency response, a fire/rescue response, or a Police response, each incident's command would be (typically) structured following the National Incident Management System or NIMS.
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