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 GOING, GOING, GONE:
FUNERAL HOME AMBULANCES, PART TWO
(Source of picture: 1956 Jax area phone book; source of
image below: Bold View, a City of Jacksonville publication during
the early 1970s.)
This ambulance rolled about the Jacksonville area during the mid Fifties.
It was owned by a local African American funeral home. The photo below shows emergency
rescue staff in Jacksonville assisting a young woman in about 1972.
Click here
for "Funeral Home Ambulances, Part One"
A CHANGE IN SIRENS --
Not so long ago, funeral home vehicles often rushed people to the hospital
during emergencies.
Funeral businesses frequently doubled as ambulance services until the
1970s.
By fulfilling a vital function, they saved numerous lives that would have
been otherwise lost.
Thirty or forty years ago, however, the provision of emergency care began
to change. Over half of America's ambulances were not vehicles made
specifically for the treatment & transport of patients. Instead, they were
hearses, station wagons, vans, or trucks. During the Sixties & early Seventies,
though, an increasing number
of ambulances proved to be mini-hospitals on wheels, complete with two-way
radios. Staffed by trained paramedics, they were maintained by
hospitals, city fire departments, county governments, and private and
volunteer ambulance operators.
There were many reasons for this transformation, and they are
covered by another webpage in JacksonvilleStory.com.
To see this
information, please click here.
JAX TO THE FOREFRONT
-- When it came to emergency medical services, Jacksonville hadn't proved much
different from other areas across America. By the 1970s, nevertheless,
the River City stood as a pioneer. Some of this was due to the efforts
of Dr. Roy Baker, a new cardiologist in town with a practice on Park Street,
not far from the now-gone Riverside Hospital. Dr. Baker showed a strong
interest in emergency cardiac care. Partly as a result,
Jacksonville became known during the early Seventies as the safest place in
the world to have a heart attack. Every Jax firefighter was trained in
CPR, as well as in other life-saving procedures.
Inspiration & expertise also came from South Florida. During the
late Sixties, the City of Miami
began a program to educate its firefighters in the use of defibrillation
gear in the field. Miami focused on telemetry, a cutting-edge
development which linked the EKG units at the patient's side to a hospital
doctor. The city's firefighting units were also equipped to handle other
medical emergencies, and personnel were taught how to give intravenous fluids.
Knowing a good thing when it saw it, the City of Jacksonville copied this
program in 1969.
Jacksonville quickly emerged as a national
leader in emergency medical services.
It ranked high on the list of trendsetters,
along with San Diego, Seattle, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Valdosta, Georgia.
Many cities sent representatives to learn from Jacksonville's EMS providers.
EMERGENCY ROOM BLUES -- Here's something that's
interesting: Many emergency rooms in America's hospitals used to be
staffed with personnel who were not specialized in trauma treatment. As
a sub-specialty, trauma medicine proved non-existent. Emergency rooms
often contained medical students and on-call doctors from various specialties
whose knowledge of trauma was limited.
The Vietnam War, though, led to significant progress in trauma research &
treatment.
The conflict also demonstrated that well-trained non-physicians could save
lives.
Jacksonville's Dr. Baker devoted himself to
the improvement of emergency services, concentrating on ambulance attendants
and emergency room staff. Dr. Baker and the Jacksonville Fire
Department helped make the city a groundbreaker in emergency care. Also
during the Seventies, a new
residency in emergency medicine was initiated at University Hospital of
Jacksonville.
The facility took a chance by investing in a new & untried specialty.
However, the emergency department there was described as a "war zone,"
inundated with cases. Desperate circumstances demanded innovative
measures.
(University Hospital of Jacksonville was a new facility that opened in 1971
across from Methodist Hospital on Jefferson and Eighth streets. In 1982,
University Medical Center assumed operation of University Hospital, and in
1999, University Medical Center and Methodist Medical Center merged, forming
Shands Jacksonville.)
Thanks partially to the guidance provided by Jacksonville, emergency
medical services have improved immeasurably over the years.
Click here
for "Funeral Home Ambulances, Part One"
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