The System

[Thaddeus (@Setla)]

We are scripting the first season of The System and we are sure not to disappoint.  One thing is for sure we can't forget the audience we are doing this for.  We want to know your feedback about what you want to see in a scripted series.  Ideas like...

1.  Please show calls we really go on!
2.  We need to address how systems actualy handle calls from dispatch through the hospital!
3.  Make us proud, but don't lose sight of what makes us!

Comments like these help us design the script to what it will become!


Let us know your thoughts!

[Mic Gunderson]

Ted,

I'd like to see the show cover some aspects of EMS that are not typically covered in documentary or dramatizations about EMS, but have a huge impact on what happens every day. Maybe some political drama storylines along the lines of a 'West Wing' episode. It could address issues that are real current controversies in EMS - and serve to educate the public (and our colleagues) about the multiple sides of these issues. For example, look at budget crunch hitting a community with ensuring debates over how to save money. Explore all sides of the debate over changes in response time targets; can you have too many paramedics; consequences of hospital bypass and off-load delays causing problems in response to 9-1-1 cases and why hospitals might not be eager to solve the problem; dynamic vs. static deployment issues; the frequent flyers and some of the legitimate and not-so-legitmate reasons that happens; the why's and controversies behind dual response from fire and ambulance; Very interesting storylines could be built around these issues - and differentiate such a program from the 'easier' drama of pain suffering and gore that shows about EMS have tended to focus on in the past. Think back to the pilot episode of 'Emergency' and the political storyline behind passage of the Wendsworth-Townsend act to create paramedic systems in California. I'd like to see more depth in the characters
and stories than just running dramatic calls. That could be not only entertaining from dramatic series standpoint, it could become enlightening - and that's the brass ring I hope such a series would aspire to grab hold of!

--- Mic

Mic Gunderson
IPS