[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEtbfzMLVWU[/youtube]
Oh, the belly rolls I get when I watch a couple of local TV stations battle it out over a story that was missed a year ago . . . the contract with Paramedics Plus;
That’s what city officials are saying after a recent report by other local media (KELO-TV) that called into question the response time of Paramedics Plus, claiming they may not even show up.
Tuesday night, the city council was supposed to hear the annual review for Paramedics Plus, but because of the recent news story, Sioux Falls Health Director Jill Franken was forced to spend most of the meeting setting the record straight.
“I feel it’s quite disheartening actually that we are getting calls from elderly ladies who are asking about concerns that they have about whether or not the ambulance is going to respond to them because of recent miscommunication that’s been provided in the community,” said Franken.
Well, Jill, those ladies should be concerned. There has been multiple reports of of bad service in the news and at public meetings. Personally I have received emails and have had accounts of questionable billing practices.
But let’s first address a news(?) organization taking the word of a city official with no follow up with actual clients of the ambulance service. Talk about lazy, piss-poor journalism. I hope they taught you more then to read a teleprompter in journalism school with the look of concern and nicely trimmed eyebrows.
Then let’s take the news organization they are attacking. Via email I made them aware that this should have been a news story when they were picked to be our ambulance service. DaCola had a massive paper trail of the cozy relationship between the provider and the consultant that picked them. We also had accounts of ‘early negotiations’ with the provider.
No response, must have been busy chasing rain drops.
South DaCola, and my foot soldiers have been compiling evidence and interviews with clients, and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture for Paramedics Plus.
On top of that, the news organizations could at least take the obvious and make hay with it.
• All money made from the service goes to Texas, and is not recirculated in our community.
• Paramedics Plus operates with an EMT and Paramedic team, when the previous service operated with two Paramedics.
• The 12 hour shifts, sitting in a vehicle are too long.
Then there is the mutual agreements and the non-emergency transfers that I won’t even go into.
What is pathetic about the whole situation is that while BOTH news organizations are sitting on a powder keg of a story, they take the time to roll around in the alley like a couple of stray cats fighting over an empty tuna can, while I sit at a public meeting and watch a big wig from said company look at his future fishing boat on his I-Pad while a constituent gives public testimony about his wife who eventually dies from a massive heart attack because of the poor service of the ambulance company.
Like some dark irony in a Batman movie, I watch the local news battle it out, while missing the big catch. Maybe they can borrow that fishing boat?