Local EMTs don bulletproof vests amid safety concerns

For the past 10 years, Emergency Medical Technician Darin Johnson has worn a bulletproof vest to work nearly every day, a rarity among local paramedics and EMTs.

That is about to change as UCHealth implements a new policy aimed at protecting a group of employees who face an increasing level of risk on the job.

UCHealth is joining the growing ranks of hospitals across the country that are outfitting EMTs and paramedics with bulletproof vests. The industry shift comes amid increased high-profile hostility toward first responders, including Monday's incident in which a gunman shot a Dallas paramedic treating a gunshot wound victim.

"For a long time, its been one of those things we know," Johnson said. "Safety concerns linger on every call that we go to. ... And there is a changing climate toward first responders. We have for too long been reactive to these types of things."

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UCHealth, which operates Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins and Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, is implementing a requirement that its 160 EMTs and paramedics wear bulletproof vests while on the job. UCHealth is paying for the vests, which cost between $400 and $500 each.

The vests, which Johnson said weigh as much as 10 pounds and can be hot to wear in summer, are designed to stop or slow bullets. They can offer some protection from other types of trauma, including from sharp objects and chest trauma during vehicle crashes. The latter is a concern for EMTs attending to patients as the ambulance they're in races toward a hospital, Johnson said.

Fort Collins police Sgt. Heather Moore, who works the overnight hours in Old Town, said drug and alcohol use can make people especially combative when dealing with first responders. She has been on calls where it has taken six officers to get an aggressive patient strapped to a gurney.

"When people in their mindset decide they're going to fight or be uncooperative, I don't think they distinguish between uniforms," she said, adding she has felt concern for paramedics working in Old Town. "I told their captain that I really want them down here in pairs because I want them to watch out for each other."

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UCHealth does not yet have a timeline for implementing the new policy or when it will receive the new vests, Johnson said. If the number of EMTs and paramedics it employs holds steady, the total cost would run between $64,000 to $80,000. Johnson said there are plans to start equipping its first responders with the ballistic vests. 

It is not that Fort Collins is a particularly dangerous community, and Johnson said he does not know of any local EMTs or paramedics who have been shot on the job. But he said physical violence is not uncommon.

After the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians surveyed its members and found more than half reported being assaulted on the job, it began a system for reporting violence against EMTs to track changes in patterns. Last year, it received 25 reports of violence against EMTs, compared to 39 the year before and 25 in 2014.

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Bruce Evans, a board member of the National Association of EMTs, calls the attacks on first responders a "silent epidemic." The fire chief of the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District in La Plata County in southwest Colorado said he thinks the number of attacks reported reflect a small portion of EMTs who are actually assaulted, since so many consider the violence they face a normal part of doing business.  

Cincinnati is considering outfitting its firefighters with the bulletproof vests. Last year, its Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services bought more than 200 bulletproof vests for its emergency responders after the fatal shooting of a firefighter. 

*An earlier version of this story misstated the name for the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians.