District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department
In June 2015, Jullette M. Saussy was named the medical director of DC Fire and EMS. On January 29, 2016, she announced her resignation from that position in a letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser. In her letter, she called the department's culture "highly toxic to the delivery of any semblance of quality pre-hospital medical care."
History of the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department
The department also saw shift in the type of services it was called upon to provide. The number of fire alarms plummeted, thanks to improvements in building fire safety and fire suppression, but worsening public health and a crisis in health care availability led the public to call on DCFEMS to provide much more emergency health care. In 2002, there had fewer than 100 fire alarms per month but 8,000 to 9,000 calls for medical assistance. By 2013, the number of calls per month had risen to almost 13,350, of which about 10,700 were for emergency medical care.