The mission of Glendale Fire’s Emergency Medical Services Program is to deliver Advanced Life Support (ALS) service to the Glendale community. We also provide this service occasionally to the adjacent cities of Burbank and Pasadena, and to certain nearby sections of the City and County of Los Angeles by request.

Currently, the Glendale Fire Department operates five rescue ambulances (RA’s) with responses from Stations 21, 22, 25, 26 and 29. Each RA is staffed with two highly-trained paramedics. Additionally, all of our fire engines and ladder trucks are authorized and have been designated by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services as Assessment Units (AE/AT) when staffed with a paramedic. Engines 23 and 28 are designated as full-time Assessment Engines and are constantly staffed with a paramedic. This allows the placement of enhanced Advanced Life Support services throughout the city and not solely on the five RA's.

At the present time, over 45 members of this department are paramedics. The training to become a paramedic requires over 1,100 hours of didactic, clinical and field internship as well as successful completion of the National Registry skills and written examinations. This is a very intense and compact training regime that has an almost 40% attrition rate. After successful completion of paramedic school and Registry testing, our paramedics are licensed by the State, accredited by Los Angeles County, and sponsored by the Glendale Fire Department to practice in the city. They work a rotating schedule on both the rescue ambulance and a fire engine. It is important to note that all of our paramedics are firefighters as well and serve as both in many instances. This allows for a full-service response to both citizens and property as the situation requires. Whether it is a fire, traffic collision, or medical emergency, our firefighter/paramedics can handle it all.

The rest of our sworn personnel are trained as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT’s) and provide Basic Life Support services. Their rapid response and assessment of the situation is critical to providing the very best in care to those who access our services. Additionally, Glendale EMT’s are trained in automatic external defibrillation and are certified EMT-D’s, which allows rapid cardiac defibrillation to a patient when time is crucial and seconds can be the difference between life and death.

The Glendale Fire Department serves a population of 207,157. During 2007, there were a record-breaking 12,680 medical incidents in Glendale, representing about 82% of the fire department’s total emergency responses for the year.

The Emergency Medical Services section is located on the second floor of the Glendale Fire Department’s administration offices. Assigned to this section are a Battalion Chief, EMS Coordinator, three Platoon Coordinators, EMT Coordinator, a Medical Director, a Nurse Educator and an Administrative Assistant.

EMS Battalion Chief Greg Godfrey is in charge of the daily operations of the section. His duties include ensuring that each paramedic performs the required continuing education, keeping up to date on current medical trends and techniques, and developing and maintaining a comprehensive evaluation process for each paramedic.

Capt. Cody Smith has been with the Glendale Fire Department for 13 years and is currently assigned as the Paramedic Coordinator. His duties include monitoring the Paramedic Program operations and personnel for compliance with State and local laws and regulations; Act as a liaison with State and local regulatory agencies, area hospitals, other fire agencies, medical equipment suppliers, paramedic training institutes, citizens, and other agencies and individuals regarding pre-hospital medical care. He assists in developing objectives, recommendations, implementing policies and procedures and conducting ongoing Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) programs to review and analyze Emergency Medical Service (EMS) needs, trends and system effectiveness. Additionally, he investigates complaints and inquiries relating to the EMS system, evaluates legislation that impacts the Paramedic and EMT programs and participates in local, regional and state EMS committees to represent the fire department interest in the formation of EMS policies and procedures.

The Fire Department employs a full-time medical advisor, Dr. Edmond Noll. Dr. Noll is also a full-time emergency medical physician as well as a Clinical Associate at the USC Keck School of Medicine. As the program’s Medical Director, he is responsible for medical oversight of our program. Dr. Noll assesses paramedic performance through personal observation, reviewing EMS reports, and communicating with other physicians. His duties also include discussions and instruction on current topics and trends in the emergency medical field. The department operates under his license as per County of Los Angeles Department of Health Services policy.

Greg Anderson is the departments EMT Coordinator. He has over 30 years’ experience in prehospital care combined with over 23 years as an EMS Educator. His responsibilities include supervising the Ambulance Operator Program, continuing education for the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) at the Glendale Fire Department. Greg also assists in maintaining the BLS quality improvement program. Additionally, he participates on EMS committees to improve prehospital care throughout the County.

We also employ a Nurse Educator, Judy Grimaldi, R.N. She has over 25 years’ experience in emergency/prehospital care. Her responsibilities include continuing education for the paramedics and maintaining effective lines of communication between the Glendale Fire Department, the local EMS agency and other local service providers and receiving hospitals. Judy has also developed and maintains the quality improvement program. Additionally, she participates in the development of prehospital care programs for paramedics at the Glendale Fire Department. Many of these programs are identified through quality improvement activities.

Administrative Assistant Yolanda Rodriguez provides clerical support to the EMS Section. This includes processing and maintaining Patient Care Records (PCR’s) on a daily basis. She is the main contact for any billing questions and she provides additional information as needed. She also tracks cash receipts, prepares the Treasurer’s Receipt, and performs a month-end reconciliation of all cash receipts and compares it to the monthly bill.

• Question: Don’t my taxes pay for services?

  Tax dollars do provide for fire services to Glendale residents, but it does not pay for paramedic and ambulance services. The Glendale Fire Department has charged for ambulance transportation since the EMS program began in 2000.

• Question: Who can I talk to about billing?

  For any billing related questions or concerns, please call 1-800-906-6552.

• Question: How can I get a medical report?

  If you are submitting the request for medical records on behalf of someone (from an attorney’s office, etc…) , you must submit a signed form indicating authorization to release medical records with a $20 check only made payable to Glendale Fire Department. If you are requesting the records for yourself, you must submit in writing your name, dob, doi, loi.

• Question: What if I can't pay my paramedic bill?

  If you are unable to pay your paramedica bill in full, you may be able to make arrangements to be placed on a payment plan pending authorization. Please contact 1800 906-6552 to inquire about payment plans.

• Question: What is glendale medic?

  Residents that sign up with the Glendale Medic program will not be billed if they or anyone in their household needs 911 emergency services. For a $60 a year or $5 a month added to the GWP bill, Glendale residents can rest assured that they wont be billed for ems services. Click here for more information.

• Question: Which City Ordinance gives the GFD the authority to bill me for paramedic services?

  Click here for more information.

• Question: What’s the difference between an ALS and BLS unit?

  ALS stands for Advanced Life Support, and is provided to patients who need paramedic services for serious emergency situations. BLS stands for Basic Life Support, and can be provided to patients by Ambulance Operators during the case where less serious emergency situations are presented. BLS is also used to transfer stable patients to the hospital.

• DO call if you are experiencing any emergency situation.
• Do not dial 9-1-1 for a non-emergency. Instead, dial the agency's listed 7-digit non-emergency telephone number.
• Do not program 9-1-1 into your auto-dial telephone.
• Do not dial 9-1-1 to "test" your phone or the system.
• Do not hang up until the call-taker tells you to. Follow any instructions the dispatcher gives you, such as meeting the officers at the door, or flagging down the firefighters at the curb.
• Do not hang up the telephone if you dialed 9-1-1 in error. Instead, stay on the line and explain to the dispatcher that you dialed by mistake and that you do not have an emergency.

LA County General Public Ambulance Rates

Get the Rate Schedule effective July 1, 2009. CLICK HERE to download schedule.

Federal law, as stated in H.I.P.A.A. (Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act), requires all health care providers to distribute a copy of that providers statement of use and disclosure of all acquired protected health information. CLICK HERE to download the Glendale Fire Dept Patient Privacy Policy

A membership program that reduces medical costs with a low, annual fee.

This is a subscription service for city residents and their immediate household as related by blood, marriage or adoption. It provides unlimited use of the Glendale Fire Department’s emergency medical system for a small annual fee of $60.

For more information, call (818) 548-4041.

Glendale Medic Program - Residents (PDF)

Glendale Medic Program - Businesses (PDF)

There is a saying when dealing with cardiac emergencies that "Time is Muscle." This means that the sooner a cardiac event is treated and transported, the less the heart muscle is damaged or destroyed. To aid in our endeavor to provide the best possible service to the citizens of Glendale, we have implemented a 12-lead Electrocardiogram Program. Instead of the view of the heart provided by a normal 3-lead or 4-lead cable, we are able to take a "look" all around the heart with the 12-lead cable to better ascertain possible cardiac abnormalities. The program has been so successful that the Department of Health Services in Los Angeles County is rapidly moving toward implementing it throughout the entire county, once again showing that the Glendale Fire Department is on the cutting edge of paramedic service and customer service.

Each year, the American Red Cross responds immediately to more than 67,000 disasters, including house or apartment fires (the majority of disaster responses), hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornados, hazardous materials spills, transportation accidents, explosions, and other natural and man-made disasters. The good news is that we as individual citizens can help.

Although the American Red Cross is not a government agency, its authority to provide disaster relief was formalized when, in 1905, the Red Cross was chartered by Congress to "carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods, and other great national calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same."

CLICK HERE to view the American Red Cross website.