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On March 26,1998,the State of Tennessee revoked the license of the
Hickory Tree Rescue Squad(located near Bristol,TN,in Sullivan Co)
 The state proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that officers of the
squad permitted personnel to provide patient care who were not
licensed in the state of TN.Personnel were also permitted to provide
care above their level of training,and reports were falsely written to
reflect that care was provided by the approprate level technician.
  Hickory Tree Rescue Squad is a small agency,call volume approx.
800-900 calls/yr.,and provided ALS transport and rescue services to a
rural section of the county.Equipment consisted of 2ALS transport
units,1BLS reserve unit,2 crash/rescue trucks,and 6 rescue boats.
Membership was very low towards the end;before Jan 1 1998
there were 5 EMTP,6 EMTIV, 6 EMTB.When decertified,There was only 
1 EMTP, 3 EMTIV 2 EMTB.
  As a now unemployed EMT-IV (and paramedic student),I would like to
speak my peace (They can't fire me now!)
  1.These events took place in early 1996,under a different staff. The
individuals involved have since moved on to screw up someone else's 
system.
 2.The events took place because of a misinterpretation of a TN state
law that was designed to provide EMS to rural state border areas. The
law allowed for out of state EMS agencies to provide care in Tennessee
at thier out of state level of training. (HTRS had a Virginia state EMS
license also, but was based in TN-can you see where the misinterpretation
might have been?)
 3.HTRS was supposed to work in concert with (but was always at odds
with) the Sullivan County EMS. It is only this writer's opinion that the
leadership of Sullivan County EMS not only was repulsed by the idea
of a volunteer EMS agency within it's district (funded by county
appropriations and service billing) but was jealous of the lost revenue
potential."Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
 4.The citizens of the community were not endangered, nor were any
injuries suffered becuse of the events. However,the citizens are in
for a rude awakening when the heavy handed collections tactics of
Sullivan County EMS reaches out to smack them in the face.
(as an example,HTRS would write off more than most because of the 
low income level of our district. SCEMS however,has initiated
garnishments and even attachments to the estate of deceased patients)
 5.My term of employment was from june 1997 until that fateful day
that I recieved a call from my supervisor,on her way back from
Nashville, TN, telling me to lock up all the equipment (EMS transport
related) and respond only with the crash truck. Not only does this trow
cold water on the EMT class I just started there (motivation fell
through the floor) but has caused me to seek another agency and medical
director to compltet my paramedic training.
   You might say, "you were'nt even there when all of this was going
on. "True,I was not. I was, however, An active EMS provider with another
service in the area that knew well of the reputation of "those
people". I even knew some of them personally, and tried to discuss the
blatant errors of their ways. Obviously,this made no difference.
                                   John Haggerty  EMT-IV
              recently unemployed from the Hickory Tree Rescue Squad
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