Glendale Council Approves City-Run Paramedic System

More than 20 years after the city began using private contractors to provide paramedic services, the City Council has voted unanimously to revive its own emergency rescue staff.

Glendale Fire Chief Richard E. Hinz had urged the council to return to the system used before 1976, in which city paramedics were assigned to fire stations or rescue ambulances. The change is expected to save Glendale $2.3 million over five years and reduce emergency response times by between 47 and 90 seconds in the city’s busiest areas and up to five minutes in the outlying areas, he said.

“We undertook a very objective, in-depth study of the city’s emergency response with an eye toward the future,” Hinz said. “I’m convinced this is the best way to go.”

The city pays American Medical Response, based in Aurora, Colo., $321,028 per year to provide ambulance service. The company staffs four ambulances out of three locations.

But under the plan approved by the council Tuesday night, the city would hire 18 additional firefighter-paramedics, who would be distributed among nine fire stations on round-the-clock shifts, Hinz said.

The costs of an in-house staff would amount to $2 million in the first year, increasing to $3.6 million annually, Hinz said. The money would be recovered through Medi-Cal reimbursements and by charging for emergency and non-emergency service, generating revenues estimated at $17.66 million over five years, Hinz said.

The management of AMR, which also charges patients for its services, contended that the city could not generate the revenues required to cover its costs, leaving consumers with higher service bills and no appreciable improvement in service.

“We were never approached by the city staff in preparing their report on their takeover of ambulance services,” said David Austin, AMR director of operations. “We have 23 years of uninterrupted history, and we have provided state-of-art care that has been cost effective.”

But the council decided in favor of paramedics run by the city Fire Department. “After analyzing the independent feasibility study on our paramedics services, I felt it boiled down to two or three things,” said Glendale Mayor Eileen Givens. “Quicker response times, more trained paramedics on duty at more locations, at a savings to the city and the citizens.”

Hinz said the revival may lead eventually to greater cooperation with the fire/paramedic services in adjoining Pasadena and Burbank. In 1997, the Verdugo Fire Communications Center, which handles emergency requests from all three cities, logged 10,309 medical calls from Glendale, 5,611 from Burbank and 9,487 from Pasadena.

The chief said that, by creating a municipal fire and rescue team, the city could eventually develop a joint plan to share resources among the three cities.