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NLV Fire Department seeks more ambulance duties to save jobs
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Feb. 18, 2010 | 2:31 a.m.
In an effort to save Fire Department jobs, the financially struggling city of North Las Vegas is considering changing the way emergency patients get to the hospital.
The Fire Department wants to transport more patients to hospitals itself instead of turning them over to private ambulance services. The department then could bill insurance companies for the service.
The change would produce revenue for the city and "hopefully prevent the loss of some of our fire service folks," Fire Chief Al Gillespie said.
But such revenue shouldn't come at the expense of private business, said John Wilson, local general manager of the private ambulance service that transports most of North Las Vegas' emergency patients.
The city "is trying to fix their budget shortfall by taking revenue and jobs from the private sector and shifting it to the public sector to minimize the impact on public employees," Wilson said. "This is sending the wrong message to the business community."
Now, most emergency ambulance calls in North Las Vegas are handled by American Medical Response and MedicWest, both of which are owned by the same parent company, Emergency Medical Services Corp.
The Fire Department would like to assume emergency transport services for all 911 "delta level" patients -- the most seriously sick or injured -- and all traffic accident patients in the city, Gillespie said.
The chief estimated that if the change is adopted, the department would go from transporting about 25 patients each month to 375. It would net about $1.6 million per year for the city, he said.
The City Council plans to discuss the matter at a special 4:30 p.m. meeting today. Other options also will be weighed:
■ Allowing the department to start transporting all 911 patients in the city.
■ Canceling the existing private ambulance provider's franchise agreement and establishing a competitive bidding process for transport services.
■ Continuing with the status quo, in which AMR and MedicWest handle most emergency ambulance calls.
The Fire Department doesn't wish to take over all emergency calls or get rid of AMR and MedicWest, Gillespie said.
"This whole deal is not to hurt ambulance companies," he said. "It's to provide good service to citizens and recover some costs for what we do."
The proposed change would represent only a small percentage of business for AMR and MedicWest, Gillespie said.
But Wilson said the company might have to lay off at least a dozen employees if the change is adopted. He questioned how much the city would take in if it began transporting more patients.
"How can you take on additional work and not think that expenses are going to rise?" he asked.
Gillespie said the cost would be minimal because the Fire Department already responds to 911 emergency calls. It simply would stop "handing them (patients) off to someone else."
The actual costs and revenues associated with such a change have been "a challenge to identify," said Maryann Ustick, North Las Vegas' acting city manager. "There's been a number of estimates of what the actual revenue would be."
Today's meeting was meant to be a work session during which the council members could examine and ask questions about the Fire Department's estimates, Ustick said. But because of concerns raised by AMR and MedicWest, the meeting probably will concern the "policy issue" of "what do we do in terms of potential impact on" private ambulance services, she said.
Henderson's Fire Department handles almost all of its own emergency transports. AMR and MedicWest handle about 80 percent of the emergency transports in Las Vegas, Wilson said.
North Las Vegas, which has undergone five rounds of budget cuts since December 2008, must trim an additional $33.4 million to make it through fiscal year 2011. The city announced this month it might have to cut up to 273 jobs -- 21 of them from the Fire Department.
Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.
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I will say it slow so you can understand. Fire Departments are funded by the Tax revenue generated by the State. There were many reasons for structuring it this way. One was to avoid any conflict of interest when it comes to response to emergencies. They understood that back in the days of logic and thought.
Today NLV goofs have spent themselves into a hole so deep....
they want to fund the emergency services with tax dollars and bill the insurance companies for the service. It is called fraud when I try to double bill someone. It is no different for a city. If this were to pass where does it stop? You pay the fire dept to respond to your house on fire with property tax. Now they would be able to charge you for doing it, on top of your taxbill. The best thing that could happen is for the state to take over NLV.
Why do they need fire stations anyway? Private agencies work 12 hour shifts and sit post in a cramped ambulance. Why can't you sit post in your 593,000 dollar fire truck? At that price tag the seat had better recline. Why do fire fighter's work 24 hour shifts anyway? seems to me if you have been at work all day already and you run a call at 1am, how sharp are you going to be? Especially in North Las Vegas where they work 48's. If you want to save money and curb spending take a long, hard look at private businesses. When the boss is paying the bills out of his own pocket they tend to find ways of keep cost down while still getting the job done. But the fire chief's don't care. Like I said, they're not the one's paying the bills.
Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Detroit, I could go on but you get the picture. Those cities have fire departments that handle fire and thats it. Mainly because they are so busy that crews only work 12 hour shifts anyhow. Who handles EMS, well, the EMS divisions do. They are either branches of the fire departments or an entirely seperate department all together. Pittsburgh has the most common sense approach in my opinion. Unless the patient is on fire or there is the potential for fire, the EMS Bureau handles everything. Whether it's a high angle/technical rescue, MVA, water rescue, makes no difference. If a patient is invlolved, it's the EMS Bureau that handles it. Fire departments here pull double duty because there are no fires. They had to diversify because the departments have twice as many fire stations and people as they need. And yet they still manage to find time to go to the gym. Are you telling me you spend millions on a new fire station and didn't put in a workout room? Why can't you put a total gym in one of the empty bays? I mean come on, you have four bays and only two trucks anyway. Yes station 33, I am talking about you. Some one once said emergency workers are paid for what they are prepared to do. When is the last time one of you lost an arm or a leg? Because that's what you are costing us.