If you watch the testimony last night at the Sioux Falls City Council Meeting (FF: 4:20) from a division fire chief about our leases with Paramedics Logistics you get some questions answered, and have even more when it concludes.
Apparently we do get reimbursed for rides we give with the leased ambulances. Paramedics Logistics bills the client, than we bill them. So how much has that reimbursement been? $0.
Why? Because according to this division chief we have never used the leased ambulances yet for transports. So why are we leasing them? Good question.
But I have also heard through the grapevine that SFFR are in fact transporting patients, but are using OUR ambulances that we already have.
So a few questions here, if the city doesn’t have an ambulance license how can we responsibly be transferring patients when it comes to liability issues using our ambulances instead of the ones we are leasing? Also, if we are using our ambulances, how are we billing for these rides? My guess is we are not, and if we are, how does that work? Who gets the money? General fund or SFFD?
There are still many holes in this lease agreement for two stationary ambulances.
I’m not sure if the division chief was either partially lying, partially telling the truth, or just leaving out huge swaths of what is really going on? Hopefully Councilor Starr who was questioning him last night will ask for the data.
I thought the city ambulances existed purely to satisfy overall grant requirements from the federal government concerning first responder aid from the Feds.
Working backward from service provided can be the best way to discover redundancy and waste. The city must not provide service without ‘Jesus’ painted on ambulances.
We might as well trade in those fire dept pickups for ambulances and quite screwing around with sending firemen to hold the hands of underpaid EMT’s.