One evening when my daughter was about 3 or 4 years old she had a febrile seizure. What happens is a child’s temperature rises very quickly from normal to more than 103 degrees. The resulting symptom is a seizure that could lead to many bad things including death.
Fortunately for my daughter I had recently completed the police academy and was a qualified first responder to medical emergencies. I recognised right away what the problem was and took immediate steps to get her fever down. In the mean time I called 911 and waited for the ambulance to arrive.
I got my daughter in a bath tub and ran cool water over her and then monitored her as her temp came down below 103 and she stopped seizing. By now 10 minutes had passed and no ambulance yet so I called 911 again and was told they should have arrived by now. The 911 operator called the ambulance and found out they were on their way but couldn’t find my residence. Now 20 minutes had passed and my daughter was still unresponsive and starting to have trouble breathing.
At that point I had a family member go out and find the ambulance crew as I was getting ready to put her in my car and drive her to the hospital myself. Right about then a Rural Metro Paramedic crew showed up and off we went to Mercy Hospital. My daughter recovered with no lasting effects and she hasn’t suffered another episode since, but this is where my issue with the Town of Hamburg begins.
After all this was said and done I was quite pissed off that it took an ambulance crew 25 minutes to get to my home in a medical emergency. I went to the town to find out some answers to my questions. First I wanted to know why Rural Metro responded instead of one of the three fire/paramedic companies within 2 minutes of my home? I also wanted to know how much of my tax dollars were paying these companies for equipment and training they don’t bother using unless it’s convenient for them to go to a call? Finally, I wanted to know why Rural Metro couldn’t find my house?
At the Town Hall I was put in contact with Joan Kesner, who was the liaison to the local Fire Departments at the time. She returned my call about a week and a half later with no clear answer to any of my questions. What I did find out was that Rural Metro had a significant contract with the town but the employees of that company didn’t necessarily work in the same town each night. So that was the most likely reason they had difficulty getting to my house.
As far as the Fire Departments and local paramedic crews are concerned, I was right, their is no mandatory response to calls for any of the local departments. So not only do we pay taxes, that pay for all the training and equipment, we then pay a private company for the ride to the hospital when our local crews don’t bother to show up. My cost that evening for the ambulance ride was just over $400.
At the time Joan Kesner told me that she was working to get some sort of mandatory rotation in the local fire departments for emergencies just like mine but 8 years later that hasn’t happened.
So the issue is this. Why are we providing tax dollars to local volunteer paramedic crews when they don’t bother to show up at every call? Why do we pay tax dollars to contract Rural Metro to respond and then get a bill from that same company after the call. It seems to me we are getting triple hit with fees for one service in this town.
We need to decide which emergency paramedic response we want and then stick to it and if we choose Rural Metro, then either they work under contract with the Town of Hamburg or they bill the customer directly. NOT BOTH! There also shouldn’t be triple dipping on tax dollars with this issue.
What are your thoughts or comments?
First off, I would like to say that your daughter recoved with no complications.
I can not explain why it took so long for the ambulace to get on location for your emergency with out the date, time and location of your need(which I would not expect you to post here), but I can only try to give more info on what you have written on your post.
First off, RM does not have a significant contract with the town, they do not recieve any money for the contract they do have. They make their money by providing transportaion for emergen and non emergent calls.
As for the companies not using equipment and training unless it is convienient for them, you are sadly mistaken. Firefighters leave their homes and families at all hours of the day and night. I highly doubt that any time is convienient to just drop what they are doing to respond to fire or first aid calls but they do it all the time
You are absolutely right on the no manditory responce to calls but most members do what they can when they can. You have to remember, they are volunteers. They are not always available to respond. This is why RM is used in the town.
While you need was a few years ago, there have been many changes in the EMS responce since then. A program was developed by the volunteers and it was given to RM that allows you to have a “subscription” ambulance service. I wont get into the service on this thread but it has helped families like yourself with the bills when RM is used in town. If memory serves me correctly, it is call the “spirt” program ??
As for how much your taxes are paying for the voulnteer services in town, this is provided to you every year on your tax bill. Each district is different.
And for your taxes paying for RM, they dont. It is as simple as that. RM has a contract that they supply a back up EMS service to the town but the town does not pay anything for this contract
If RM were to become the primary provider in town, there would be other problems to deal with. The vollies still respond to and transport a great deal of EMS calls in town. They can do it all anymore, this is why there is a such a great mutual aid system in town, part of which include RM
Just out of curiosity, what fire protection do you live in ?
Sorry, I meant to say that I am glad that your daughter is OK !
Trying to send this out to fast.
Thanks for participating Ron. 8 years ago when I looked into this I was told that the town paid Rural Metro a good buck to have them sit in the town and wait for calls to come in. That may have changed since then. I live in Hamburg District 11 across from the Big Tree Fire Hall now but at the time I was on Old Milestrip Rd near the mall.
You were misinformed, RM has never been paid to sit in town and wait for calls. I could see your agrivation thinking you were being tripple taxed for EMS when someone gives you such wrong info. As a member of the BTFVC, I can say that you will never wait this long for service in the district that you live in now or the one you use to live in.
If you ever have any questions on how this system works or how the BTVFC functions, please feel free to stop by and ask for me or one of the other chiefs. We will be more than willing to share with you.
I can only hope that, over the past 8 years, your opinion of the volunteer service has changed. We pride ourselves in providing the tax payers of our district with the most highly trained unpaid professionals available.
While the system is not perfect, the Hamburg Fire Chiefs assn meets every month to try to better the service we provide to you, the taxpayers of the town of Hamburg.