We had a very puzzling story yesterday about a private ambulance firm in Michigan that was providing the emergency EMS for two localities. This outfit called Island City Area EMS had its license to operate revoked by the state, yet it has only been in service for sixteen months. We summarized some of the violations that led to the revocation HERE and they are blatantly irresponsible and inexcusable faults.
Some of the key violations include the lack of liability insurance, broken equipment and the failure to stock even the most basic of medical supplies. But the fact that these violations were first exposed just a few months after this slipshod outfit began operating, indicates to me that the “blatantly irresponsible and inexcusable” label also belongs to the state Department of Public Health for issuing the license to operate in the first place. A simple, cursory glance at the company’s financial structure when it applied would have shown immediately that it was seriously under-capitalized. That would have also been exposed by an unscheduled field inspection of the units which would have exposed the lack of supplies.
Another major failing by both the state and the localities involved was their approval of the franchise rights to serve the communities without any evidence of possessing the necessary liability insurance. There is just no excuse for any governmental body to overlook such basic requirements. It looks like the bureaucrats in Michigan are so lax in their responsibilities that they are just rubber-stamping any appilcation that comes across the desk. And when you’re doing that with an emergency medical “provider,” that invites a criminal investigation. But after observing some of the hanky-panky and outright graft that’s been going on in state government lately, I’m not holding my breath on that one.
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In the “Spirit of the Season” there is a marvelous program to help bring our blessings and support for the military troops that are stationed overseas during the Christmas holiday. XEROX Corp. launched a project over Thanksgiving weekend whereby anyone can log onto a special website and send Thank You cards to deployed military personnel. It’s called the Let’s Say Thanks project. When you log onto the dedicated website http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1280.html you select a design from the dozens that are available, then you type in a personalized message and then send. Xerox will print out your message on a physical post card with that design and mail it to a soldier/sailor chosen at random. All the costs of this program are borne by XEROX and is entirely free to you.
WIVB-TV in Buffalo shows how it works in this video report (sorry, the sound skips aren’t my fault):
So take just a moment and click through the link that we have provided above and send a sincere Thank You to an armed forces member who is away from home over the holidays while fighting to protect our freedoms.
Then we can get started on the daily equipment check. I’ll go make sure that there’s plenty of coffee.
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