Philadelphia Fire Department Has New EMS Leader
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Philadelphia Fire Department has a new leader of Emergency Medical Services. Jeremiah Laster has been sworn in as Deputy Commissioner.
The 24-year veteran of the fire department says one of the tasks at hand will be working on ways to free up medical units for those who really need them:
"A lot of 9-1-1 calls or for lower priority calls that could be put into other places such as mobile integrated health care where people really don't need to go to the hospital, but they need to go to a medical home and we look forward to working with hospitals and other medical delivery agencies so we can make sure these people don't have to rely on 9-1-1 as their first call for medical services."
Deputy Commissioner Laster was hired as a Fire Service Paramedic in 1989. He was formerly an acting deputy chief, a Special Investigations Officer and also served as the Integrity Officer for the Philadelphia Fire Department.