Private Ambulances OKd for Some 911 Calls

A plan to dispatch private ambulance firms to low-priority 911 calls--such as stubbed toes and stomachaches--won preliminary support Tuesday from the Los Angeles Board of Fire Commissioners.

Under the proposal, private ambulances would be used to respond to about 40,000 of the 230,000 calls that the city Fire Department receives annually through the 911 system. They would be able to collect city-approved fees for the services they provide.

The idea of using private ambulance firms was tested during a 1991 pilot program in the San Fernando Valley after a management audit found that most 911 emergency medical calls do not require the services of trained paramedics.

The latest move to privatize city services was praised by Fire Department supervisors and union representatives as a way to help meet a demand for services that they say continues to grow, particularly as poor, uninsured residents use the 911 system as a last resource for medical services.

Because of current funding shortages, Fire Chief Donald O. Manning said the department can’t hire the extra staff needed to meet the growing workload.

“I don’t see us getting into the major numbers of people in the department that we need . . . to handle the current workload,” he said.

Capt. Ken Buzzell, president of the city’s firefighters’ union, said he supports the program because paramedics often find themselves responding to calls from someone who has stepped on a nail or needs his or her temperature taken.

“With the kind of calls we are talking about, if the ambulance companies want to buy them, they have my blessing,” he said.

To gauge the success of the Valley’s 1991 pilot program, the department surveyed firefighters as well as patients who used private firms. They found that at least 90% were satisfied with the services offered.

Although preliminary estimates projected a savings of up to $6 million if the program were to succeed on a citywide basis, fire officials now believe that it will simply break even because the city will lose out on the fees that it would normally have collected for paramedic services.

Nonetheless, fire board Vice President David W. Fleming said the program could reduce the department’s response time to real medical emergencies by freeing paramedics from having to answer non-emergency calls.

“It will improve the efficiency that we have today in answering . . . real emergency calls,” he said. “With heart attacks and lives at stake, that is key to me.”

If the program wins final board approval in two weeks and is adopted by the City Council and the mayor in April, it can be implemented as early as June or July, fire officials said.