… unless it DIRECTLY affects them. 

Dave Statter broke the story on a Monday death of a PG County, Maryland, resident. He was recovering from heart surgery and was having trouble breathing. When his wife called 9-1-1 at 11 am, the nearest fire station, 1.3 miles away, immediately sent an ambulance. The nearest fire station usually has a county-staffed paramedic ambulance, but that crew was furloughed for 12 hours, part of a budget-crunch response that will require every county employee to take 80 hours of unpaid leave by June 30th.

The nearest staffed paramedic ambulance was eight fire stations and 7.1 miles away. While dispatched the same time as the ambulance, it took an additional 8 minutes travel time. When the ambulance crew got to the patient’s side, they called in a “working code” that added a fire company.  The (probably) two-person engine company arrived one minute after the paramedic ambulance.  Go to HERE and HERE to get Statter’s well-documented report.

While this issue raises passion with insiders, it has no significant impact on the public. Unless you are directly affected. Here are two examples.

SEATTLE MEDIC ONE

The Seattle paramedic program delivers a clinically excellent service. Most of the pre-hospital care research, as well as dozens of EMS medical directors, have come from the program designed by Doctor Michael Copass. We talked about the program HERE.

It also has a long history of struggling to maintain funding:

1970 Medic One research initiative.  Partnership between Seattle Fire Department, University of Washington and Harborview Hospital.

1972 City Council declines to fund continuation of program.

Members of IAFF Local 27 scramble to fund the life-saving project from 1972 through 1979.

1974 60 Minutes runs “Best place to have a Heart Attack” feature

1979 establish a Metropolitan King County tax levy to fund Medic 1.  Voted on every six years. Special Medic 1 tax levy funds the 22 paramedic ambulances in metro King County, including Seattle.

1997 only 56% of the voters approved the renewal of the levy, defeating Medic 1 funding.

Special referendum in Feb 1998 to restore funding.

IAFF Local 27 in high-profile campaign to pass the 2001 Medic 1 tax levy with enough funding to add four paramedic ambulances.

2007 Proposition 1 “Medic One Emergency Medical Services Renewal of Existing Property Tax Levy” passes with 83% approval after an 18 month campaign by labor and others.

THE PHILADELPHIA WORKLOAD

The Philadelphia Fire Department paramedic ambulance service has transport units exceeding 8,000 responses a year. For years the local media has run stories similar to Statter’s, documenting 40+ minute response times. The IAFF advocating that the city add 20 ambulances.  I wrote about the problem HERE when a resident died New Year’s Day 2008.  The department had to send two fire suppression rigs to provide enough oxygen while waiting over an hour for the first ambulance, that broke down onscene. She died by time the second ambulance arrived.

Long before the current economic crisis, both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were in a muncipal version of bankruptcy. Legislation or court orders are merging city and county agencies and reducing the delivery of municipal services. While Philadelphia is getting some resources this fiscal year, most of their ambulances will continue to respond to 7,000+ calls a year.

Emergency services are facing budget cuts and resource restrictions of a magnitude that has not been seen since World War II. Monday’s experience in Largo, Maryland, will probably be repeated throughout the country. Municipal budget planners are warning that Fiscal Year 2010 (July 2009 - June 2010) will be worse than this budget year.

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