DC chief calls action of ambulance crews “extreme dereliction of duty”. Moves to fire four firefighters.

DC Fire & EMS officials say they have completed investigations into the actions of two ambulance crews and concluded they engaged “in evasive behavior to avoid being dispatched on calls”.

A statement released late Friday indicates the department is moving to fire the four firefighters involved and “have submitted their cases to termination trial boards”.

Spokesman Alan Etter tells STATter 911, “Chief Rubin desires to move swiftly and deal very seriously with the actions that have been found to have occurred”.

As STATter 911 previously reported, a crew from Ambulance 10 spent more than seven-hours on July 11 in Upper Northwest Washington, far away from its quarters in Northeast at one of the busiest fire stations in the country. The ambulance was eventually discovered by another EMS crew parked in the Palisades neighborhood along MacArthur Boulevard.

The ambulance was in-service, but because of its location, the dispatch computer did not put the unit on any of the emergency calls it would normally be assigned if they had been back at the firehouse. The call volume in Upper Northwest is generally lower than many other parts of the city.

On July 24, Ambulance 33 was also discovered in Upper Northwest, having been out-of-service for two-hours and forty-minutes, unavailable for runs. According to sources familiar with the investigation, the crew had last reported to dispatchers they were returning a paramedic to Engine 27 in Northeast. Ambulance 33 works out of a firehouse in Southeast, about 10 miles from where the crew was discovered.

The department was able to track the travels of both ambulance crews through the automatic vehicle locators on all fire and EMS response vehicles in the department’s fleet. That information also shows up on computer screens in front of dispatchers at the DC Office of Unified Communications (OUC), the city’s 911 center. Through a spokesperson, OUC Director Janice Quintana has refused to answer questions as to why it took so many hours before the dispatchers realized the ambulances were not where they were supposed to be.

All four firefighters remain on administrative leave with pay.

In the statement Chief Rubin said, “There is no room in this department for such behavior”.

In an unrelated case previously reported by STATter 911, the department indicates it has been unable to substantiate claims the crew from a medic unit took pictures of a patient with the woman’s camera phone.

In the Friday statement the department says, “Repeated attempts to meet with the family and the alleged victim and obtain the evidence have been unsuccessful”. The EMS call was on June 8 on Ontario Road, NW.

The department calls that aspect of the investigation inconclusive. But one of the paramedics remains in no-patient-contact status. The statement says, “a review of this case has revealed deficiencies in treatment that warrant corrective action”.

Sources tell STATter 911 officials believe the medic should have called for police assistance in dealing with this patient.