EDITORIAL: Las Vegas needs to dump dangerous ambulance policy
July 20, 2015 - 12:21 pm
Within two months of the Las Vegas Fire Department enacting a policy to take on more ambulance transports, there was proof that it was a bad idea to crowd out private-sector ambulance company American Medical Response. There were allegations of lengthy delays in response times and the Fire Department cherry-picking calls. A little over a year later, there‘s more proof — in the form of two lawsuits.
As reported by the Review-Journal‘s James DeHaven, lawsuits filed last week in U.S. District Court claim at least two victims of violent crimes might be alive today if not for policies adopted by the city and its Fire Department. The suits, drafted by attorney and former City Councilman Matthew Callister, allege the new city-approved ambulance dispatch policy — officially adopted in March 2014 — needlessly delayed medical responses and contributed to the wrongful deaths of John Kraai and Brandon Pickford, who died from wounds sustained in separate attacks early last year.
Mr. DeHaven‘s report noted attorneys for the relatives of both men claim they died at least in part because a city policy barred dispatchers from automatically deploying nearby private ambulance contractors to high-priority calls now predominantly handled by the Fire Department. Court papers contend Mr. Pickford was attacked within 200 yards of an ambulance owned by one such contractor — AMR. The filings also claim Mr. Kraai waited 26 minutes for city-provided medical attention that could have been more readily administered by AMR.
These lawsuits were entirely predictable, as the warnings were out there. In late April 2014, AMR General Manager Scott White told the Review-Journal‘s Jane Ann Morrison that in the month before the policy change, 29 calls resulted in a delay of five minutes or longer for AMR. In the two months after the Fire Department began handling more transports, there were 199 delayed calls, 13 of them with delays of between 20 and 30 minutes. And just two weeks later, Ms. Morrison reported on a study showing the Fire Department was cherry-picking patients who live in affluent ZIP codes, thereby transporting people more likely to be insured and able to pay the ambulance bill. Such a move would leave AMR with the majority of transport patients less likely to be insured or able to pay.
It‘s a bad deal for AMR — which pays a $400,000 annual franchise fee to the city — but these lawsuits point to it being an even worse deal for potential patients. The Fire Department‘s initial goal was to jump from 30 percent of transports to 50 percent, though it ultimately wants 75 percent, in an effort to realize $12 million to $14 million per year in new revenue. But what good will that money do if it‘s later paid out in lawsuits? Plus, basic math shows the impossibility of the Fire Department‘s desire — it has 22 ambulances, and AMR has 70. The only way the Fire Department can meet its transport goals is to soak taxpayers by adding more ambulances and more extremely well-compensated firefighters.
The city needs to dump this destructive policy and restore the dual-response policy, before it costs the taxpayers any more money, and more important, before any more lives are lost.