Its morale is a burning mess, now the reputation of Hillsborough County Fire Rescue is singed.
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue failed to check a firefighter’s qualifications before promoting him to paramedic and allowed him to respond to emergencies.
As it turned out, Justin Brofsky did not have Florida Department of Health certification to be a paramedic.
“There were people out there that called 911 that expected a fully qualified paramedic crew to render aid to them and they didn’t get that,” former Hillsborough Fire Rescue Chief Ron Rogers said.
An 8 On Your Side investigation confirms between 2015 and 2016, Brofsky performed paramedic procedures on 179 patients.
“It would be no different than a doctor performing surgery on you and he’s not really a doctor,” Rogers explained. “You wouldn’t be happy about that.”
“He was always being supervised by a rescue officer,” current Fire Rescue Chief Dennis Jones said.
According to current Chief Jones, quality assurance officers looked through the cases on which Brofsky worked and determined all patients received adequate care.
“They said he was never not supervised, which is dubious, because it’s impossible to say that,” explained former Chief Rogers.
“There are situations where you have multiple patients where he’s going to be taking care of one and you’re going to be taking care of one, how can you supervise him?”
The question is how and who okayed the promotion without required state certification?
Chief Jones blames Justin Brofsky.
“After we found that, we implemented a practice so that we would absolutely verify credentials before they began the program, before they receive a promotion,” added Chief Jones.
Rogers believes the process was in place and someone didn’t follow it.
“The trigger of him being promoted is getting his state certification. I don’t even know how that process started without him having that certificate,” Rogers said.
Brofsky resigned from Fire Rescue in 2016.
But, not before the county and Fire Rescue paid him to do a job he was not legally entitled to perform.
If you know of something that should be investigated, call our 8 On Your Side Helpline at 1-800-338-0808. Contact Steve Andrews at sandrews@wfla.com.
