Fire Department to take over emergency medical services

 

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

Based on unanimous enthusiasm from city commissioners at their meeting June 3, the Key West Fire Department will be taking over ambulance and emergency medical services, currently outsourced at $50,000 a month to a private company.

 

The timeline for the transition from a private contractor to local fire-based EMS services is still up in the air and presents some potential problems. The city is currently on a month-to-month contract with CARE/American to provide ambulance service. That contract expires March 31, 2015. Even the most ambitious estimates made by fire and union personnel at the commission meeting indicated at least 15 months were needed to hire and train the needed personnel, negotiate licenses and purchase equipment.

 

And some commissioners were also cautious about spending what will amount to millions of dollars in start-up costs in a rushed manner.

 

“It’s all nice and everything to say this, but it is taxpayers’ money,” said Commissioner Mark Rossi. “We are embellished up here to make sure we spent it properly.”

 

But the unanimous indication from commissioners and Mayor Craig Cates is that the city needs to take emergency service in-house and stop depending on often unreliable private contractors. They directed City Manager Bob Vitas to take the first step of contacting CARE Ambulance to see if the March 31 expiration could be extended if needed.

 

“Sooner or later, you will be the ambulance service for this community,” Commissioner Tony Yaniz promised the 20 or so firefighters who attended the meeting, who broke into applause.

 

“I’m one of the biggest supporters up here or in this room to see the fire department take it over,” said Commissioner Billy Wardlow, himself a former fire chief. “We can get started planning this now.”

 

Commissioner Clayton Lopez, while supporting the idea, said the significant start-up cost, estimated at $2.3 million dollars in the first year, according to a study done by the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), should be spread out over at least two fiscal years, which would push the transition back more than 15 months. Wardlow agreed, saying a prudent time estimate for when the city could take over EMS services would be three years.

 

“For fiscal reasons, I think there is some validity to taking our time in doing so on that end of it. Hurrying into it too fast is where mistakes happen and we don’t want that,” Lopez said.

 

But his colleagues were eager to move ahead and directed City Attorney Shawn Smith not to put out a planned RFP for private ambulance services that would begin after the CARE contract expires. That could be a risky move, especially if CARE decides to prematurely end the contract, which it can do with a 60-day notice. While officials weren’t predicting that, they were wary of the fact CARE unexpectedly announced earlier this year it would no longer provide ambulance service in Key West after its contract expired.

 

“I’ll forgo the RFP but I want everybody to know there is a chance that CARE may not be here. We’ve got to make sure we have [an emergency] provider here,” Wardlow said.

 

Commissioners made their comments after listening to presentations from both the IAFF and the Florida Fire Chiefs Association, both of which enthusiastically endorsed the fire department taking over emergency services. Daniel Harshberger, Jr., from the state fire chiefs association, presented his organization’s report, which estimated the city would have a balancing act between revenues brought in from charging for ambulance calls and the cost of providing those services. He said the city would have a deficit each year, topping $277,000 in year five.

 

“Up until a few years ago you were paying upwards of between $400,000 and $600,000 [annually]. So you’re operating in the negative, but at less than what you were paying out previously to the private provider,” Harshberger said.

 

Walter Dix, an IAFF representative, said that based on a study of Key West’s needs, his group recommended that four ambulances be purchased and 16 fill-time fire fighter paramedics be hired, as well as a physician medical director. His revenue projections for the city ranged from $939,000 to almost $1.7 million a year, depending on the number of calls and how much the city charged for them. The current cost of an ambulance call in the city is approximately $328.

 

But the uncertainty of how much in-house emergency services will ultimately cost taxpayers does not outweigh the benefits of the move, according to Key West Fire Chief David Fraga.

 

“Private providers will come and go. They will migrate to follow the bottom line. As history has shown us, when their profits don’t meet their quarterly forecasts, they will leave. The Key West Fire Department is not leaving,” he said.

 

 

 

 

 

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