Fire Authority Plan Makes Good Sense

* Re “Private Ambulance Companies Have Served O.C. Taxpayers Well,” Orange County Voices, March 16:

The broad range of emergency situations to which firefighters now routinely respond includes fires, automobile accidents, exposures to hazardous materials, as well as heart attacks, seizures and drownings. Responding rapidly and effectively in each of these situations requires highly trained personnel and specialized equipment.

Techniques developed during the Vietnam War made it possible for trained paramedics to stabilize victims at the scene before they are transported to the hospital. As a matter of well-established public policy, over the past 25 years, fire departments throughout the nation have become providers of this life-saving, at-the-scene paramedic care.

When you dial 911 to summon help in a medical emergency, Orange County Fire Authority firefighter-paramedics and a private ambulance simultaneously receive the call.

The firefighter-paramedics arrive within five to seven minutes and begin treatment immediately. Within 15 minutes or so, the private ambulance staffed only with emergency medical technicians arrives, not to treat the patient but simply to transport him. A firefighter-paramedic climbs into the private ambulance and accompanies the patient to the hospital, monitoring vital signs, making notes and continuing to administer care.

At the hospital, the OCFA firefighter-paramedic transfers the patient into the care of an emergency room physician, explaining how the patient became ill or injured and providing a full report of the patient’s current condition.

While the private ambulance company receives payment from the patient or his insurance carrier, the Fire Authority receives no portion of these funds and is not currently compensated for the emergency medical services it provides.

Nearly two years ago, the Orange County Fire Authority began a lengthy and careful review of its emergency medical services system to determine how these services might be improved and how at least a portion of the costs associated with delivering these life-saving services might reasonably be recovered.

The review concluded that average medical emergency response times could be reduced from eight to six minutes if existing paramedic personnel were distributed differently so that a paramedic would ride on each fire engine. This practice is currently being implemented.

Other results of the review are summarized in a report that concludes that the Orange County Fire Authority has sufficient trained personnel and specialized equipment to provide superior emergency ambulance transportation without new taxes or increased user fees.

By implementing the recommended emergency transportation program, the OCFA could recover the cost of providing vital emergency medical services; reduce the cost to the consumer; eliminate the current unfair situation in which the profits of private ambulance companies are subsidized with taxpayer dollars; and free for-profit ambulance companies to concentrate on the nonemergency transportation of patients between care facilities, which constitutes their primary source of revenue.

SHERRI BUTTERFIELD

Chair, Orange County Fire Authority