Plan Aims to Speed Emergency Service

Faster emergency service at a better price is what officials are proposing with a two-part system they say would reduce average paramedic response time from eight minutes now to five minutes or less.

The Fire and Marine Department plan would phase out the privately owned ambulance service the city uses and replace it with a city-run system. The change would give the city a net revenue gain of $85,000 to $158,000 a year, according to the proposal.

Firefighters, who are trained as emergency medical technicians, currently work with paramedics to provide life support. Some firefighters also have paramedic training.

Emergency ambulance transportation, however, is provided by a private contractor who bills the patient’s insurance provider.

“We want to be the primary ambulance provider so we can access the revenue that is going to the private company,” said Viki Cleary, the city’s Emergency Medical Services coordinator.

“Those revenues will come back to fund improvements for the public we serve instead of ultimately going as profit to stockholders” of MedTrans Ambulance Inc., Cleary said, adding that another incentive would better response times. “It’s important to get advanced medical care as quickly as possible.”

Cleary, a registered nurse, said her department’s goal is to place firefighter-paramedics in all fire stations. Only three of the city’s six fire stations now have firefighter-paramedics.

The city’s Public Safety Committee will meet Monday to review the proposal before presenting it to the City Council. Officials say the soonest that the plan could take affect would be November 1997.