Re: Local hospital officials keep watchful eye on ambulance service bids

[Guest guest]

Jay

In your recent post about ETMC providing service in McLennan County. the

resources of posting trucks is very important. But what you don't know or

understand is that starting, I believe Oct. 1st, we will start providing

service to the city of Pasadena. Do you think we have have any trucks close

to that area?

N.Frazier LP

Local hospital officials keep watchful eye on

ambulance service bids

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> Local hospital officials keep watchful eye on ambulance service bids

> By MICHELLE HILLEN Tribune-Herald staff writer

> As city officials begin evaluating bids from ambulance companies, local

hospital officials say they hope the service chosen to provide coverage to

the Waco area won't take patients out of Waco.

>

> Five ambulance companies have submitted bids to provide service to the

seven-city coverage area which includes: Waco, Hewitt, Woodway,

Lacy-Lakeview, Beverly Hills, Bellmead and .

>

> Of those five companies - including Port Arthur based Gold Star EMS;

Aurora, Colo. based American Medical Response; Tyler based East Texas

Medical Service; Temple based and White and the current provider

Rural/Metro - two are associated with hospitals. Those two are East Texas

Medical and and White.

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> Officials with Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center and Providence Health

Care Center say that could spell trouble for them if those two opt to take

patients to their own hospitals instead of the closest one.

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> " It's a big concern, especially in outlying areas where it would be very

easy for an ambulance to divert patients to their own facilities, " said Dr.

Joe Cunningham, an executive with Providence. " I've seen this happen in

other communities, so a risk does exist. "

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> But that risk is negligible because of response time requirements and a

local transportation policy that requires emergency patients to be taken to

the closest hospital, said Waco Fire Chief Jon Fasana, who chairs the

Emergency Services Review Committee. That committee will eventually make the

decision about which ambulance service to hire.

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> " The local transportation policy says you transport the emergency

patient to the closest appropriate hospital. That is in the best interest of

quality patient care, " said Fasana. " The other thing is that an ambulance

company would be crazy to (take a patient out of town) because they have an

obligation to meet response time requirements. To meet those requirements,

they want to dispatch a patient to the closest hospital so they can free up

that ambulance for the next run. "

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> But there are vague areas of the rules that would allow a company to

transport patients out of the area, said Jim Gray, chief medical officer for

Hillcrest.

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> " There are all sorts of things that govern trauma patients ... but for

most patients there is enough gray in the rules to allow it to happen, " Gray

said. " I haven't heard that and White or East Texas Medical have

specifically done this, but this type of thing is chronically a concern for

hospitals. "

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> Representatives from all of five ambulance companies, including

and White and East Texas Medical, said their policy is to station ambulances

throughout the coverage area and take patients to the nearest hospital.

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> Members of the Emergency Services Review Committee will continue to

review the applicants and said they hope to make a decision in September.

>

> The current ambulance contract, held by Rural/Metro, won't expire until

July 2003. Any new contract would begin the next month.

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[Guest guest]

Jay

If you don't live in Fannin County, don't talk about it. I have lived here

for 20 years it was never a problem to man a truck with the previous service

nor with ETMC as we were willing to work to cover the county we live in as

well as protecting the family we all had here here.. As far as pulling their

part time truck truck from Honey Grove it was there till the end. So let's

not talk out of place unless you know the full facts N. Frazier LP

Re: Local hospital officials keep watchful eye on

ambulance service bids

> The only issue with ETMC is their staffing and manning trucks. I know

they had a hard time financially in Fannin County, but the manning of the

trucks & keeping them up (on duty) was a problem. They finnally pulled

their part time truck from Honey Grove, and I think they did Leonard.

>

> ETMC also has to pull trucks from other areas to cover their areas. We

used to have to get a truck from Tyler to come south to cover &

Counties when the truck where I was working as a cop was called

out. Tyler traffic is a major problem, and then sending one from Tyler

south is a headache. On a good day, it took me 35 minutes to commute from

Tyler to just down the street from the EMS station.

>

> I have not seen ETMC able to maintain the truck coverage in any county I

have worked in, other than Panola county- and I think alot of that has to do

with it's primary rural population.

>

> I don't think ETMC is covering Rains County anymore, either... Maybe

wrong, but I think they closed that one too. They have pulled out of

Delta, Fannin, and I think Rains in NE Texas. They have also pulled out of

Navarro.

>

> From my understanding in talking with Tyler paramedics, ETMC has a hard

time maintaining coverage in their own city. Don't quote me on that- but I

believe that a couple of years ago, they were talking about the FD taking

over EMS.

>

> I am not saying at all that ETMC EMS provides bad service- the Panola

county crews were a big help over the summer in transporting my patients,

but it appears that their is a problem in keeping enough trucks online- a

big part of that may be finances, but if you don't make enough money overall

in the entire system- then you have to close out trucks to keep them from

pulling the whole company down.

>

> Jay

> -----

> Even though they've hit some bumps recently, ETMC-EMS is a pretty good

> operation too and could probably do a good job regardless of not having

any

> of their units in adjacent counties. For ETMC-EMS, the difference

between

> McLennan county and other ETMC-EMS operations where they would need to

> borrow a unit from and adjoining county, is that McLennan county has

enough

> of a population base to support sufficient trucks staffed and ready to

back

> each other up without calling on resources from adjacent counties.

Still,

> they have bellied-up in a county not so far from McLennan recently.

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[Guest guest]

Norman, I live close enough to Fannin County to comment.

I believe my travelling through that county on a near daily basis & my family

living in and working in Fannin County is a good enough basis for comment. So

do not tell me that I have no business commenting on Fannin County.

One of your superiors at ETMC told me himself that they were having problem

financially there- which is totally understandable. You can't operate if you

don't have the income coming in to sustain the operation.

It is common knowledge that ETMC was not able to sustain operating in Fannin

County due to the funding problems.

I have never questioned Fannin County's EMS operation protecting Fannin County.

Don't rush to judgements about the location & my basis for posting in regards to

Fannin County.

Jay Hoskins

Re: Local hospital officials keep watchful eye on

ambulance service bids

Jay

If you don't live in Fannin County, don't talk about it. I have lived here

for 20 years it was never a problem to man a truck with the previous service

nor with ETMC as we were willing to work to cover the county we live in as

well as protecting the family we all had here here.. As far as pulling their

part time truck truck from Honey Grove it was there till the end. So let's

not talk out of place unless you know the full facts N. Frazier LP

[Guest guest]

RE: Local hospital officials keep watchful eye on

ambulance service bids

wheels turning. Do we really think that a municipality

will continue to operate a ems with figures in the

red? I don't think so. Ultimately we are all " for

profit " at least to the point of breaking even. AMR

Mreed> Yes, actually, EMS should not be a for-profit experience on the

911 side of things. That's why private providers have to do both - the

transports make enough to cover the 911, which is a red-line item.

That's why transfer-only services have faster growth rates and more

money to burn if they're well run.

Mreed> Cities, however, " lose money " on pretty much everything else -

libraries, police, fire, parks, roads... Why should EMS be different?

Until cities/counties/citizens realize that EMS isn't inherently a

for-profit venture on the 911 side of things, pay scales, availibility

and the like are not going to improve.

Mike