Redmond’s mobile ER: Medic One provides top-notch service, knowledge to emergency situations

Mark Donnell first became interested in becoming a paramedic in 1992 when he was with the North Bend Fire Department. The agency had started a program that paired emergency medical technicians (EMTs) with paramedics and Donnell said he was impressed by the paramedics' level of experience, education and what they were able to do. "I wanted that knowledge," Donnell said. "I wanted that training." About 12 years ago he became a paramedic for Evergreen Medic One, which was sponsored by Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland back then but was taken over by the Redmond Fire Department (RFD) in 2003, and has never regretted his decision.

February 7, 2012 2:29 pm
Mark Donnell
Mark Donnell

Mark Donnell first became interested in becoming a paramedic in 1992 when he was with the North Bend Fire Department.

The agency had started a program that paired emergency medical technicians (EMTs) with paramedics and Donnell said he was impressed by the paramedics’ level of experience, education and what they were able to do.

“I wanted that knowledge,” Donnell said. “I wanted that training.”

About 12 years ago he became a paramedic for Evergreen Medic One, which was sponsored by Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland back then but was taken over by the Redmond Fire Department (RFD) in 2003, and has never regretted his decision.

Last Friday, Donnell spoke at the Redmond Senior Center’s monthly First Friday Coffee Chat, a forum that gives the public the opportunity to learn and gain insight into different city entities. He discussed his job and role in Redmond Medic One, which began in Seattle in the early 1970s before it expanded to all of King County and uses physicians to train firefighters in medicine.Donnell said despite its name, Redmond Medic One serves all of northeast King County and is one of six agencies in the county’s Medic One program. The other five are South King County Medic One in Kent, Seattle Fire Medic One, Vashon Medic One, Bellevue Fire Medic One and Shoreline Fire Medic One.

Before joining the program, Donnell went through about a year of training. He said it was the best experience of his life, but admits with a laugh that he would never want to do it again. This is because training to be a Medic One paramedic is extremely intense and grueling. Trainees are required to go through 3,000 hours of initial training, compared to the 1,200 hours of training required by other paramedic programs in the country.

Donnell said in Medic One, physicians train firefighters in medicine. The paramedics-in-training work in rotations at Harborview Medical Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital and the University of Washington Medical Center.

“You’re working side by side with physicians to get a higher level of training,” Donnell told the chat audience. “We bring that physician care to you…We bring the ER (emergency room) to your door.”

By the time he completed his training, he helped about 2,000 patients, started more than 500 IVs and had intubated about 100 patients.

Donnell said it wasn’t easy, especially since he was commuting from Kingston at the time and there were days when he would get home with only enough time to squeeze in about five hours of sleep before turning around and doing it all over again the next day. With such a demanding schedule, Donnell admits he would constantly question why he was putting himself through all of it — especially around the holidays when he was often away from home.

“I don’t think there was a day I didn’t do that,” he said, adding that his wife, who’d had experience with the fire service, was very understanding during this initial training period.

In addition to the initial training, Donnell, who is now a training paramedic with the agency, said Medic One paramedics must also maintain 50 hours of ongoing training per year. He added that paramedics coming from other agencies must go through all of this training in order to be part of Medic One as well; on the other hand, Medic One paramedics don’t need any additional training to join another agency.

In addition, Donnell said he and his fellow paramedics are firefighters as well and need to maintain their firefighting training. However, he said the trained medics are usually held back in situations such as a structure fire in order to take care of anyone who may get injured.

It is this intense training that has other agencies looking to Medic One as a model in the industry.

“It’s internationally known what we do here,” Donnell said.

And the numbers speak for themselves.

During the coffee chat, Donnell said King County, especially northeast King County, is the place to have a heart attack because the rate of “walkout survival” is so high. The national walkout survival rate is 11 percent, New York’s is 3 percent and Detroit is 0 percent. In 2010, King County’s walkout survival rate was 54 percent and northeast King County’s rate is 74 percent.

“We are recognized throughout the world as the leader in cardiac arrest care,” Donnell said.