D.C. Emergency Services Fails Another Test

The two firefighters, according to an FEMS source, have been served with notices of proposed disciplinary action and are now on administrative leave until their cases are adjudicated by the fire department's trial board.

To La-La Land once again.

In the same statement, the mayor also declared: "We've made changes . . . .to improve quality of care with an enhanced training curriculum."

Back to the real world.

On March 31 Sgt. Theresa L. Shanklin, a paramedic instructor with Fire and Emergency Medical Services since 1987, sent Chief Thompson a memorandum that described a violation of training academy procedures. (Only initials will be used here.) She told Thompson that another instructor, Sgt. A., asked if she had dismissed the emergency medical technicians' class for the day, because lead instructor M. had given A. some information to be distributed to the class.

Shanklin wrote: "I looked at the papers Instructor [M.] gave to Sergeant [A.] and I was shocked. The documents that Instructor [M.] asked Sergeant [A.] to distribute were copies of question [sic] for the Department of Health Examination, scheduled for the next day."

Shanklin, who was honored as instructor of the year in 2003, 2004 and 2005, wrote: "This examination is very critical, it indicates whether a provider has the cognitive skills needed when faced with a life-threatening emergency in the field of operations." Shanklin said she informed M. of the violation of academy policies in the presence of academy training director W. and advised them that she had shredded the copies that were to be distributed to the EMT recertification class. Shanklin said W.'s failure to react with "alarm to this very serious charge" caused her to "wonder if this is a common practice for EMT recertification class." Shanklin asked Thompson for a full investigation and recommended that W. and M. be removed from the training academy.

Thompson was contacted June 20 for his response to Shanklin's charges and recommendation. Instead, Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesman Alan Etter answered a series of queries in Thompson's behalf.

The following is a chronology of FEMS replies:

June 20, 3:43 p.m. : "This matter was brought to our attention at the end of March, and the investigation was completed by mid-May. We took the allegations very seriously and found that they could not be substantiated. The examination is administered by the D.C. Dept. of Health and no FEMS employees have copies of the test questions or any material used in its composition . . . sample questions and answers were developed based on experiences with prior tests . . . the instructor planned to distribute them to the class . . . this type of coaching is not permitted . . . The instructor was told not to distribute the material and the material was not distributed."

4:26 p.m. : "The instructor didn't even generate this document -- someone gave it to her -- and she thought it would be a good instruction tool -- so she planned to distribute it to students -- but that never happened."

The department was advised that A. had substantiated Shanklin's account in a meeting with me. I asked if the sample questions and answers had been compared with the actual tests handed out the next day. I also requested a copy of the investigative report and asked about the instructor's status.