mranderson
11-06-2005, 09:11 AM
There has been discussion for sevral years about the Oklahoma City Fire Department taking control of EMSA.
The city owns all the equpiment EMSA uses including the ambulances and the facilities. EMSA gets five million dollars in compsenation a year from the city, and loses money every year.
Should the city take control of EMSA and merge it into the fire department, most people would get no cost ambulance service or low cost. The only billing would be medicare reimbursment. The ambulances would be distrubuted in districts like the district chiefs are now. Possibly half the stations having an ambulance. Say for example, when dispatched, the dispatcher would call "medic nine."
A side that is both positive and negative is that an engine company would still be dispatched to medical calls, and an engine and rescue ladder to injury accidents (known as signal 82's).
Keeping this in mind. What do you think. Should OCFD and EMSA be merged?
The city owns all the equpiment EMSA uses including the ambulances and the facilities. EMSA gets five million dollars in compsenation a year from the city, and loses money every year.
Should the city take control of EMSA and merge it into the fire department, most people would get no cost ambulance service or low cost. The only billing would be medicare reimbursment. The ambulances would be distrubuted in districts like the district chiefs are now. Possibly half the stations having an ambulance. Say for example, when dispatched, the dispatcher would call "medic nine."
A side that is both positive and negative is that an engine company would still be dispatched to medical calls, and an engine and rescue ladder to injury accidents (known as signal 82's).
Keeping this in mind. What do you think. Should OCFD and EMSA be merged?