FIRE DEPARTMENT INFORMATION

464 Gates Street, Doylestown, OH 44230

Fire Chief, Ron Browning

Telephone: Voice w/answering machine 330-658-2300; Fax 330-658-4884

Telephone: 24 hour manned dispatch sevice 330-658-2222

FOR EMERGENCIES DIAL 9-1-1

Regular meeting: Every Tuesday 7:00 PM til 10:00 PM

The Chippewa Township Fire Department is a part time, on-call; fire department. This means that the station is manned from Monday - Friday, the hours of 6 am to 6 PM for EMS duties and the Fire Duties are on an on-call, as needed basis. There is much non-emergency work that has to be done at the station to keep the fire department operations tip-top; therefore, often there are firefighters at the station

For EMERGENCY activities such as FIRES, EMERGENCY MEDICAL CALLS, HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS, ETC. please call emergency dispatch by dialing 9-1-1. This call will put you in contact with a Wayne County emergency dispatch center. The primary idspatch center for Chippewa Township is the Rittman Police Department dispatch center; if that center is busy you will automatically be connected with either Orrville or the Wayne County dispatch center. All three centers have the abiltiy to dispatch teh Chippewa Township Fire Department by activating a page system which will alert the necessary Chippewa Township Fire Dept. personnel.

For semi-emergency calls which need to be handled on a prompt basis please call 330-658-2222; this will put you in contact with the Rittman Police Dept. dispatch center, which will be able to quickly contact a Chippewa Township Fire Department officer to handle the problem.

For business and personal calls to the Chippewa Township Fire Dept. please call 330-658-2300. This phone is located in the offices of the fire station and will be answered by a firefighter only if one happens to be at the station for non-emergency purposes, which is quite frequent. If there are no firefighters at the station an answering machine is available for you to leave a message. We will try to get back to you at least by the next day.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Chippewa Township Fire Dept., feel free to visit us every Tuesday evening from 7 pm until 10 pm.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE
What is soft billing?
For township residences your Fire/EMS department bills a third party for services we provide to you. In other words, we attempt to collect from Medicare, Medicaid, Hospitalization insurance or Auto insurance when we provide service to you.

What is a third party?

A third party is Medicare, Medicaid or an Insurance Co. that is responsible for payment.

Why should your Fire/EMS department consider soft billing?

Right now you and I as taxpayers, share the total cost of the Fire/EMS department. We also pay taxes to support the Medicare and Medicaid government programs, our employers may provide hospitalization insurance and we pay for Auto insurance. Medicare/ Medicaid and these insurance’s provide payment for the services your Fire/EMS department provides to you. We just have to ask for payment.

How will soft Billing help?

By billing and collecting from these third parties we can continue to provide vital services to our township residences, while doing everything possible not to increase taxes. Our run volume has increased about 5% per year and equipment cost goes up every year. Soft billing will go a long way in keeping the taxes cost down for our Township residences.

How will this be billed?

If possible we will send the soft billing directly to a third party. In some instances we may not have enough information to do this. In this case we will send the billing to the resident with a request that it be forwarded to the third party.

What If I don’t have a Third Party to Pay?

We are very concerned with this and will not create a hardship for our residence. Our intent is to collect from third parties.

What if my third party does not pay the entire bill?

We accept what ever the third party pays as full payment.

Why haven’t we soft billed in the past?

Until recently state and federal laws required the Fire/EMS department to aggressively pursue collection from a resident if a third party didn’t pay. As stated above we are not willing to create a hardship to our residence. Now with the new laws, we can avoid this situation.

When is this going to start?

Trustees approved to start soft billing for all EMS runs, starting July 1, 2006.

Who can answer my questions now?

You may call Fire Chief Ron Browning, Monday through Friday at the Fire Station (330 658-2300) or E-Mail any questions to fdchief1@doylestown.com. The residences of Chippewa Township/ Doylestown have always supported their Fire/EMS department, which through your support has become an outstanding department in this area. By using Soft Billing we can increase our resources without asking you for more taxes. We believe this makes a lot of sense.

FIRE DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES

FIRE SUPPRESSION: Fire suppression is handled on an on-call basis with a general alarm going out to all Chippewa Township Fire Dept. members, who will respond with the necessary equipment to extinquish the fire at hand. If the suppression is deemed to require more effort or equipment than is available with our own department, we have agreements with surrounding fire departments to provide assistance on a mutual aid basis. Mutual Aid is an agreement by which fire departments agree to help each other as the need arises.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE: The station is manned from Monday - Friday, the hours of 6 am to 6 PM for EMS duties and the Fire Duties are on an on-call, as needed basis.
Emergency Medical Service is also done on an on-call basis with an EMS specific alarm going out to the on call EMS squad of the Chippewa Township Fire Dept. The mutual aid agreements mentioned above may be invoked for EMS incidents as well as fire incidents. Chippewa Township EMS operates under the State of Ohio, Region 8, EMS Protocol & Procedures Manual, as authorized by our EMS Medical Advisor, Ross Compensa, M.D., Barberton Citizens Hospital. In cases of major trauma, this protocol calls for transport via ground or aeromedical, which ever is most appropriate to the nearest major trauma center (usually Akron General Hospital.)

NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION.

PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

Chippewa Township Fire Dept., Emergency Medical Service is required by law to maintain the privacy of certain confidential health care information, known as Protected Health Information or PHI, and to provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI.

Chippewa Township Fire Dept., Emergency Medical Service is also required to abide by the terms of the version of this Notice currently in effect.

Uses and Disclosures of PHI: Chippewa Township Fire Dept., Emergency Medical Service may use PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, and health care operations, in most cases without your written permission. Examples of our use of PHI:

For treatment: This includes such things as obtaining verbal and written information about your medical condition and treatment from you as well as from others, such as doctors and nurses who give orders to allow us to provide treatment with you. We may give your PHI to other health care providers involved in your treatment, and may transfer your PHI via radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center.

For payment: This includes any activities we must under take in order to get reimbursed for the services we provide to you, including such things as submitting bills to insurance companies, making medical necessity determinations and collecting outstanding accounts.

For health care operations: This includes quality assurance activities, licensing, and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our established policies and procedures, as well as certain other management function.

Reminders for Scheduled Transports and Information on Other Services: We may also contact you to provide you with a reminder of any schedules appointments for non-emergency ambulance and medical transportation, or to provide information about other services we provide.

Use and Disclosure of PHI Without Your Authorization: Chippewa Township Fire Dept., Emergency Medical Service is permitted to use PHI without your written authorization, or opportunity to object, in certain situations, and unless prohibited by more stringent state law, including:

For the treatment, payment or health care operations activities of another health care provider who treats you;
To a family member, other relative, or close personal friend, or other individual involved in your care, if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so or if we give you an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection, and in certain other circumstances where we are unable to obtain your agreement and believe the disclosure is in your best interests;
To a public health authority in certain situations as required by law (such as to report abuse, neglect or domestic violence);
For health oversight activities including audits or government investigations, inspections, disciplinary proceedings, and other administrative or judicial actions under taken by the government (or their contractors) by law to oversee the health care system;
For judicial and administrative proceedings as required by a court or administrative order, or in some cases in response to a subpoena or other legal process;
For law enforcement activities in limited situations, such as when responding to a warrant;
For military, national defense and security and other special government functions;
To avert a serious threat to the health and safety of a person or the public at large;
For workers’ compensation purposes, and in compliance with workers’ compensation laws;
To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors for identifying a deceased person, determining cause of death, or carrying on their duties as authorized by law;
If you are an organ donor, we may release health information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate organ donation and transplantation;
For research projects, but this will be subject to strict oversight and approvals;
We may also use or disclose health information about you in a way that does not personally identify you or reveal who you are.

Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed above will only be made with your written authorization. You may revoke your authorization at any time, in writing, except to the extent that we have already used or disclosed medical information in reliance on that authorization.

Patient Rights: As a patient, you have a number of rights with respect to your PHI, including:

The right to access, copy, or inspect your PHI: This means you may inspect and copy most of the medical information about you that we maintain. We will normally provide you with access to this information within 30 days of your request. We may also charge you a reasonable fee for you to copy any medical information that you have the right to access. In limited circumstances, we may deny you access to your medical information, and you may appeal certain types of denials. We have available forms to request access to your PHI and we will provide a written response if we deny you access and let you know your appeal rights. You also have the right to receive confidential communications of your PHI. If you wish to inspect and copy your medical information, you should contact our privacy officer.

This means you may inspect and copy most of the medical information about you that we maintain. We will normally provide you with access to this information within 30 days of your request. We may also charge you a reasonable fee for you to copy any medical information that you have the right to access. In limited circumstances, we may deny you access to your medical information, and you may appeal certain types of denials. We have available forms to request access to your PHI and we will provide a written response if we deny you access and let you know your appeal rights. You also have the right to receive confidential communications of your PHI. If you wish to inspect and copy your medical information, you should contact our privacy officer.

The right to amend your PHI: You have the right to ask us to amend written medical information that we may have about you. We will generally amend your information within 60 days of your request and will notify you when we have amended the information. We are permitted by law to deny your request to amend your medical information only in certain circumstances, like when we believe the information you have asked us to amend is correct. If you wish to request that we amend the medical information that we have about you, you should contact our privacy officer.

The right to request an accounting: You may request an accounting from us of certain disclosures of your medical information that we have made in the six years prior to the date of your request. We are not required to give you an accounting of information we have used or disclosed for purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations, or when we share your health information with our business associates, like our billing company or a medical facility from/to which we have transported you. We are also not required to give you an accounting of our uses of protected health information for which you have already given us written authorization. If you wish to request an accounting, contact our privacy officer.

The right to request that we restrict the uses and disclosures of your PHI: You have the right to request that we restrict how we use and disclose your medical information that we have about you. Chippewa Township Fire Dept., Emergency Medical Service is not required to agree to any restrictions you request, but any restrictions agreed to by Chippewa Township Fire Dept., Emergency Medical Service in writing are binding on Chippewa Township Fire Dept., Emergency Medical Service.

Internet, Electronic Mail, and the Right to Obtain Copy of Paper Notice on Request: If we maintain a web site, we will prominently post a copy of this Notice on our web site. If you allow us, we will forward you this Notice by electronic mail instead of on paper and you may always request a paper copy of this Notice.

Revisions to the Notice: Chippewa Township Fire Dept., Emergency Medical Services reserves the right to change the terms of this Notice at any time, and the changes will be effective immediately and will apply to all protected health information that we maintain. Any material changes to the Notice will be promptly posted in our facilities and posted to our web site, if we maintain one. You can get a copy of the latest version of this Notice by contacting our privacy officer.

Your Legal Rights and Complaints: You also have the right to complain to us, or to the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. You will not be retaliated against is any way for filing a complaint with us or to the government. Should you have any questions, comments or complaints you may direct all inquiries to our privacy officer.

Privacy Officer Contact Information:

Privacy Officer, Chippewa Township

Fire Chief

P.O. Box 265

Doylestown, OH 44230

330-658-2112

Effective date of the Notice: April 14, 2003

TRAINING: The Fire Department regularly conducts training sessions in all aspects of all activities of the department with training scheduled for the first, third, fourth, and fifth Tuesdays of each month. The same training that is presented on Tuesday evenings is repeated on request of the members on Wednesday mornings for those who could not attend the Tuesday sessions. Several times a year we hold weekend training for subjects which cannot be handled in the two to two and a half hour sessions on Tuesday evenings or Wednesday mornings. There is EMS specific continuing education conducted once a month at the direction of our EMS Medical Advisor from Barberton Citizens Hospital. The members also attend outside the department training regularly at the Wayne County Regional Fire School as well as other generally recognized training schools.

FIRE PREVENTION: The Fire Department has an active ongoing fire prevention program which operates on three fronts. One, a children's educational fire prevention program done in conjucntion with the Chippewa Local School system and Sts. Peter and Paul School along with local day schools and youth activities such as the Scouting programs. Secondly we do educational fire prevention programs for businesses and adult community groups upon request. The third front is the inspection program in which public buildings, such as schools, churches, businesses, day schools, and foster homes are inspected for fire and life safety hazards. These inspections also provide our firefighters with a familiarity with the buildings and the personal occupancy of the buildings. This allows improved efficiency whin the Fire Dept. is faced with and emergency in or at these buildings.

AUXILIARY SERVICES: We as a fire department have access to and are involved in auxiliary Wayne County fire department services such as fire investigation, rope rescue, hazardous materials handling, and underwater rescue. The Chippewa Township Fire Department is a member of the National Fire Protection Association, the Ohio State Firefighters Association, the Wayne County Fire and Rescue Association, the Wayne County Fire Chiefs Association, the Wayne County Fire Investigation Unit, the Wayne County Dive Team and the Wayne County Rope Rescue Team.

Wayne County Fire and EMS Association, meeting January 27, 2003

Fire Department Mission

To save lives and property

Saving lives and property is done by

EMS

Fire control

Fire prevention

Fire prevention is done by

Education - learn not to burn

Inspection - prevention of unsafe situations

Investigation

--To learn of unsafe situations

--To discourage intentional fires

Functions of good investigation

Start as soon as alarm is transmitted

--Know the who, what, where, when, and why of the alarm

--Know the environment of the incident scene

--------What should be there; what shouldn’t be there Based on time of year, day of week, time of day

Upon arrival

If possible, have photos taken of the fire progression. If not observe for memory the fire pattern and progression

Observe doors and windows for:

--Open - closed, if open was it forced

--Locked - unlocked

--Broken - unbroken

--Smoke or burn pattern on glass

Observe the surrounding area for:

--People

--Vehicles

--Out of place items, such as cans for accelerant

Consider the entire fire scene area to be physical evidence of the fire; this scene should be protected and preserved for investigation

Upon entry

Observe room conditions

--Is access to the room obstructed.

--Does the room have a normal pattern of contents

Upon fire fighting

Disturb the scene as little as possible

--Do not blow away evidence with hose streams

------Fog streams tend to minimize evidence destruction

------Remember, the base of the fire may be the origin of the fire

--Watch that hose lines disturb as little as possible

--Do leave everything in place, do not place contents or ruble outside

------Protect contents in place with tarps

------Leave fire ruble for the fire investigators to examine

----------Contents and ruble outside causes poor public relations

--Do not bring anything into the structure other than firefighting tools

------No drink cups, cans, or food wrappers

------No other fire operation debris

--Protect the fire ruble from debris, if you pull ceilings or walls down,

--Refuel tools where spilled fuel will not be tracked into the fire structure

--Leave switches and/or knobs in their existing position

------If you have to move them, photo or document their position before you move them.

--Use as few firefighters as possible,

------There will be fewer who will have to testify

------Keep out all other personnel unless there is a compelling reason for a person to enter a fire structure

Limit access to the fire area

--Post a sentry at entrances to a building

------Entry logs are desirable if the incident goes to court

----------Person’s name

----------Time of entry

-------------List of items taken in

----------Time of departure

--------------List of items taken out

--Rope or tape off the fire incident area, as large as reasonable

--Identify with evidence tags, any items which may be evidence

------Cones

------Evidence tents

--If items absolutely have to be handled or moved

------Document with pictures and statements before moving

------Maintain chain of evidence on items moved

--Maintain a firefighter presence to maintain access for investigation

Physical evidence is what counts in court; “expert” testimony only explains physical evidence.

These notes were derived primarily from NFPA 921, Fire and Explosion Investigations, Section 14.3, Preservation of the Fire Scene and Physical Evidence, Additionally, notes were derived from Essentials of Fire Fighting, Fourth Edition