Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
Mayoral challenger Paul Vallas went to city hall Tuesday to talk about his plan for increasing the number of ambulances deployed by the Chicago Fire Department, only to see Mayor Rahm Emanuel preemptively announce he’s adding more ambulances to the street.
About 45 minutes before Vallas’ scheduled news conference to criticize Emanuel’s handling of emergency medical services, the Emanuel administration sent out a news release announcing the fire department would be getting five new ambulances, and that fire officials would hold their own event to discuss the additions Tuesday afternoon.
If elected, Vallas said, he would move to add another 20 ambulances to the fleet by the end of his first term, to bring the total number to 100. The cost for the new vehicles would be about $50 million, which he said could be covered in large part by more efficiently billing insurance companies for emergency medical services and monetizing the larger ambulance fleet by getting private events such as music festivals to pay to have fire department paramedics on hand.
Vallas also said he would create a separate bureau for paramedics within the fire department, headed by a director with commissioner-like powers. He did not think he would need to reduce the number of firefighters on engines and ladder trucks in order to increase the number of paramedics to staff the additional ambulances he would purchase.
He suggested Emanuel has been punishing paramedics because their union backed Jesus Garcia in the 2015 election.
thanks Dan
#1 by CrabbyMilton on August 3, 2018 - 11:40 AM
You know the old saying that if it makes sense, don’t do it.
Indeed, the use of private ambulances for the less urgent cases is ideal. But then again, the MED units here in Milwaukee are dispatched at the same time as an engine(as a squad) and they make the determination when they get to the scene if the MED unit is needed. If not they send them back and request a private ambulance.
So there are still chasing around so hence, the issue.
#2 by Michael m on August 3, 2018 - 7:53 AM
Why can’t the city do something similar, save the CFD ambulances for serious emergencies and have one of the private ambulance companies transport the BLS patients?
Would this even work in the city?
#3 by Bill Post on August 1, 2018 - 9:38 PM
It is a shame the just about every year for the last few years Milwaukee has been taking companies out of service. I remember back in the mid 1970s they were in better shape than Chicago when it came to manning. All of Milwaukee’s engines and trucks were running as 5-man companies while 75% of Chicago’s were running with 4. Chicago had Flying Manpower Squads following companies on the still alarms. Even though Milwaukee had no heavy squad companies in service they would normally get three engines and two trucks on their structure fires. They had more manpower on the scene then Chicago did at the time.
When it comes to EMS service Milwaukee has a different system than Chicago. In Milwaukee the fire department medic units are supposed to be used for life threatening and serious emergencies while the BLS jobs and transportation are handled by three private ambulance companies. The city is divided into zones for each companies.
The Milwaukee EMS system is very similar to King County and Seattle, Washington which is considered to be one of the best in the country, In 2003, USA Today did a review of various EMS systems around the country and at the time Milwaukee was considered to be one of the top three EMS providers based on the witnessed cardiac arrest save rate.
#4 by John Antkowski on August 1, 2018 - 11:56 AM
Aleast the CFD has someone looking out for you. It Milwaukee the fire department is on its own! No talk of additional resources just another round of cuts which is going on it’s eighth year, so sad. ???