DC Mayor & Chief want private ambulance service to take over low priority responses
District officials have a plan to ease the ambulance crisis in the city. Instead of sending city-owned ambulances to every single call, they will begin sending private ambulances on low priority emergencies.
D.C. Fire Chief Gregory Dean will meet with the D.C. City Council Tuesday morning at the Wilson Building to lay out specifics of the plan, which includes contracting with a private vendor for as many as 20 ambulances that would be on call 24 hours a day. Mayor Muriel Bowser hopes to have the plan approved through emergency legislation, FOX 5’s Paul Wagner has learned.
“If the council agrees, we will do a performance base where we ask to have an ambulance at a certain location within a certain number of minutes throughout the District,” said Chief Dean.
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The fire chief says the goal is to relieve stress on the system, freeing up ambulances for badly needed maintenance and firefighters for training. Although private ambulances would respond to the low priority emergencies, fire personnel would be sent as well.
The proposal would also eliminate long waits at hospital emergency rooms for some of the city’s ambulances. In recent months, the fire department has had to rely on mutual aid to take emergency calls that have soared in the city to as many as 600 a day.
In Seattle, where Chief Dean used to work, private ambulances have been used to supplement city-owned ambulances for as long as 40 years.
“On the surface, it makes sense. We believe it to be a short-term fix. We would like to see our staffing levels and our units increased to be able to cover those calls in the future, but given the crisis we are in right now, it absolutely makes sense,” said D.C. Fire Union President Ed Smith.
D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie wasn’t so sure. He wants to hear the proposal before making up his mind.
“I want to see the details of the proposal. I’m sure my colleagues would like to see it as well,” said McDuffie. “At the end of the day, what I think that we want to make sure that happens is that residents of the District of Columbia and every visitor to the nation’s capital has the highest quality emergency medical services as possible,” said McDuffie.
The private ambulances would transport only low priority patients, D.C. Fire and EMS Chief Gregory Dean said.
“It could be a cut hand or cut arm, things of that nature, a sprained wrist, we would call for a third party provider to take you to the hospital versus taking you on the fire department apparatus,” Dean said.
District officials point to a surge in 911 calls, many for low priority and non-emergency incidents, as one reason there have been so many delayed responses.
Chief Dean wants to test this system for a year to see if it will work.
“It does make sense,” said Ed Smith of the firefighters union. “Every day we’re maxed out. The rigs are falling apart. We need more time to train.”
This will not impact patient care, Dean said.
“The ambulance companies, all their employees have to be emergency medical technicians that still have to be licensed under the Department of Health,” Dean said.
Bowser plans to ask the D.C. Council to approve a pilot program to test the use of private ambulances. She will brief council members Tuesday morning at their monthly breakfast meeting.
