Scanning Louisville area EMS

The Louisville area has always been divided into two sections, one being Jefferson county and the other was the city of Louisville.Each had it's own police, fire and EMS services and radio systems.In 2003 the citizens of Louisville and Jefferson county voted to merge the city and county governments to form one Louisville metro government.

Today the Louisville area is still seperated into two areas.The former city of Louisville is called the URBAN SERVICE DISTRICT and the unincorporated area around the old city limits formerly known as Jefferson county is the SUBURBAN SERVICE DISTRICT.

Monitoring the EMS agencies in Louisville is much simpler then monitoring the fire or police services because unlike fire and police, both urban and suburban EMS operate off of the same UHF radio system.

                               

             Louisville Metro Emergency Medical Services

Louisville's primary EMS agency is Louisville Metro Emergency Medical Services (LMEMS) and the primary air-ambulance service is STATCARE.In addition there are a number of private ambulance services which can be called in by LMEMS in the event of a shortage of units or some sort of mass casualty incident.

The LMEMS ambulances and command units are identified over the radio as MEDIC units and the first response trucks are called FLYCARS.Each different type of unit has a different type of unit number.Just FYI a Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance is staffed by two EMTs, an Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulance is required to have a Paramedic on board so it is staffed by one Paramedic and one EMT.The FLYCARS are staffed by a Paramedic/lieutenant.

LMEMS also maintains employees assigned to provide specialized service such as Tactical Medics to the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT), Dive Medics and Swift-Water Rescue Medics, as well as retaining a highly visible bicycle team. Personnel are also assigned to the federally administered Joint Emergency Service Unit which seeks to combine all aspects of public safety in a large area into one task force to better coordinate activities in the event of a major emergency.

• MEDIC  1-9          Command Staff               
• MEDIC  30-39            Captain                     
• MEDIC  40-59      Street Supervisors            
• CAR  900-969  FLYCAR w/ Permanent Number
• CAR  970-999       Temperary FLYCAR            
• MEDIC  100-169     ALS Ambulance               
• MEDIC  200-269     BLS Ambulance               

The second digit in the ambulance unit numbers indicates the division,there are six divisions.

In addition If they already have a unit for example 121 or 221 that is on duty, and are at a hospital from a late run, and there is a 121 or 221 that is coming on for shift, the dispatcher will assign the new unit as 121a or 221a. The CAD supports this, and prevents having a problem dispatching 2 units with the same unit number, on 2 different runs.

The small cities inside Louisville that operate their own fire and police departments but don't have a city owned ambulance service may contract their EMS calls out to one of the private services such is the case in Jeffersontown where EMS calls within the city limits are handled by Yellow Cab Ambulance service.

               LMEMS frequencies.

  Frequency   CH                    Description

• 463.0000  MED 1   LMEMS  Med Channel 1
• 463.0250  MED 2   LMEMS  Med Channel 2
• 463.0500  MED 3   LMEMS  Med Channel 3
• 463.0750  MED 4   LMEMS  Med Channel 4
• 463.1000  MED 5   LMEMS  Med Channel 5
• 463.1250  MED 6   LMEMS  Aux / Unit-to-Unit
• 463.1500  MED 7   LMEMS  Unit-to-Hospital Backup 
• 463.1750  MED 8   LMEMS  Unit-to-Hospital Primary 
• 462.9500  MED 9   LMEMS  Urban Dipatch/Ops         
• 462.9750  MED 10 LMEMS  Suburban Dispatch/Ops 
• 453.0250     ?         LMEMS Operations
• 453.0750     ?         LMEMS Operations
• 453.1250     ?         LMEMS Operations
• 453.1750     ?         LMEMS Operations

                  

       Rural-Metro Ambulance

     Frequency     CH       Description

• 155.1600         F-1         Dispatch  
• 155.3250         F-2       Unit-to-Unit 

                   Yellow Cab Ambulance

Yellow Ambulance currently has over 70 ambulance units and makes over 6,500 runs a month serving the citizens of Kentucky and Southern Indiana with Basic and Advanced Life Support services. With over 400 full and part-time certified EMT’s, Advanced EMT’s, and Paramedics, including all dispatch personnel (which are required to be certified EMT’s),Yellow Ambulance also provides EMS service to the city of Jeffersontown. 

      Frequency       CH     Description

• 452.2250            ?       EMS Van Service
• 458.3625            ?       Yellow Cab Ambulance
• 458.7875            ?       Yellow Cab Ambulance

            Mercy Ambulance

        Frequency       CH      Description

• 155.2800             ?       Mercy Ambulance
• 155.3400             ?       Mercy Ambulance 

          

                      STATCARE Air Ambulance

(When landing in the metro area they will often go to the suburban fire mutual aid channel (F-7) so that firefighters can guide them down to the landing zone.)

          Frequency      CH       Description

• 155.4000            ?        STATCARE  Primary
• 155.3400            ?        STATCARE
• 155.2200            ?        STATCARE
• 155.2650            ?        STATCARE

If you have information that you think I should add to the site please feel free to email me.