Anonymous
By the Santa Barbara County Fire Department
The County of Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors has made the decision to not extend the current ambulance contract and directed staff to explore a non-exclusive multi-provider permit model. The Board’s decision was based on their desire to improve the already existing EMS system through reinvestment in the community by providing more ambulances for 911 response, dedicated inter-facility transport ambulances, community paramedicine, and community and financial oversight at no additional cost to the community.
The Santa Barbara County Fire Department has been providing service for community needs for almost 100 years and ambulance transport for nearly 50 years. 75% of the 911 calls it receives in the County are for medical emergencies. The department currently provides paramedic ambulance transport services for UCSB, Vandenberg Village (Lompoc Valley), New Cuyama, and the HWY 166 corridor. With the new system, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department plans to seamlessly provide services to an already existing EMS program.
American Medical Response has been providing EMS transport services to our communities for several decades. The County Fire Department looks forward to partnering with AMR to provide exceptional service to our communities.
The Santa Barbara County Fire Department is a model public safety agency, widely recognized for our effectiveness, regional strength, and community attentiveness. With almost five decades of providing paramedic/ALS services to the community, we affirm our department’s dedication to continuing our tradition of excellence in the emergency medical services.
The Santa Barbara County Fire Department has been providing Advanced Life Support (ALS) services to the community since 1974. The department has over ninety practicing paramedics throughout the ranks of Firefighter, Engineer, and Captain. Firefighter paramedics are staffed at all 16 fire stations and all fire department ambulances.
The new system will take effect in March of 2024.
[Ed Note: This press release has been updated by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department and an earlier version of the article included a different title. ]
I don’t really care one way or the other. But that has to stink if you work for AMR, how many people just lost their jobs over this? And from what I’ve read this option is not the cheaper one.
How many Fire employees lost their jobs when the contract went to AMR?
Exactly none.
EMT’s at AMR make close to minimum wage for a job that involves saving lives and seeing death on a daily basis. They deserve to get driven out of town.
Wow, there should be a grand jury investigation of this.
The is a perfect example of union sponsored politicians.
Welcome to California, to the United States for that matter.
County Fire did not WIN this contract. They lost at every objective measure the past few years. This was 100% a political decision made by politicians who didn’t want to lose the support of the Fire Departments. Every independent expert and scoring system warned the Board of Supervisors that this will likely lead to worse patient outcomes.
Politicians putting politics before people.
There is so much more to this than “just winning the contract…” The County Fire will have to purchase DOZENS of Ambulance vehicles at the cost of close to $200k a piece. Maintaining a FLEET of ambulance vehicles and having reserve ambulances to cover during down maintenance, not to mention the cost of said vehicle servicing. There is also the cost of specialize Paramedical equipment- MILLIONS of dollars of equipment and drugs every year… Then there is the HUGE cost of Paramedics. Medics in the Fire Service not only receive Firefighter pay, but receive incentive pay as well. They must attend “continuing education” which is mandated by the State and County… That is 100’s of hours annually that medics must be compensated for as well as the overtime for the coverage while attending “C.E.” Then there is the paperwork aspect of keeping track of all the Medics training, calls, overtime and patient medical reports / transports/ drug and oxygen therapy, ETC…. This is a GIANT BALL OF WAX County Fire is getting into- They will have to hire a huge support /Admin Staff JUST FOR THE AMBULANCE/MEDIC service- in addition to the already huge Admin group need to manage a department.
Coast said, “The County Fire will have to purchase DOZENS of Ambulance vehicles at the cost of close to $200k a piece. ”
Coast, maybe the County can buy used ambulances from AMR and save some $… 😉
Well at least the Fire Dept. will now get some new rides per KEYT/The Palm:
“Fire Chief Mark Hartwig says there are already 35 new ambulance vehicles that have been ordered and his staff will be ready to answer the county’s calls.”
GT
Zero?
So we get to go to a “Public Safety Model” like LA, Chicago, or NY. That also means we go from the current cardiac arrest survival rate of 40+% with AMR, to the 2% survival rate enjoyed by the above Public Safety models.
“at no additional cost to the community.”
What in the propaganda?
GT:
SB County started to use AMR over 40 years ago, so as I said earlier, zero Fire employees in answer to your question
My statement was how many AMR people are going to be out of work from this decision? The fire department personnel always had a job and will not be out of work. How is that hard to understand? And AMR won the contract twice btw. So back to my original statement, how many people did this decision just put of work?
EMT’s at AMR use AMR as a stepping stone into other, better jobs If you notice, they are almost always young people. AMR EMT’s use the experience and training to apply for jobs that pay extra for EMT skills and experience. A friend of mine used AMR to get a job with Ventura County Fire and then left VC Fire went back to school and quickly became a Physicians Assistant. Staying at AMR as a career move is similar to staying on at McDonalds for 50 years and expecting to earn $100K plus pension and benefits. Not going to happen, because its a stepping stone to a career, not the career
EMT’s also go on to become Paramedics, many staying at AMR as a career with good wages and benefits. The only downside being that Fire Departments are constantly subverting the system trying to take their jobs away.
No additional charge except for the 35 new vehicles that must cost at least $100,000 each? Need replacing every 5 years? This was brought up before, but deserves an answer. How does the county account for its long term liabilities? AMR has to put them into its hourly rate billed to the county because it has to pay into a program per paycheck. Public Employee unions are able to assume that they can just raise taxes in the future to cover any shortfalls.
AMR responded to over 34,000 calls in SB County in 2021. Sounds like a lot, but when you divide that by the 125 EMT’s and Paramedics AMR has in SB County, that actually is a lot of down time. On the average, the math says each of the 125 handled 272 cases a year which is less than two per shift for a two person team. Lets say SB County Fire (1) paramedic with pay benefits, taxes, truck, fuel, equipment costs us $175K each per year to handle 272 calls, it works out to over $640 per call per person or nearly $1,300 per call on the average. That doesn’t include they are going to need their own supervision and support staff
Some people just can’t stand having any public service performed by other than private, for-profit entities whose major incentive is — profit!
To be clear, the paramedics and EMTs are not in it for profit, and AMR does not cost any taxpayer dollars. EMTs and paramedics leave jobs like AMR to collect pensions and retire at 50 at the Fire Dept for…profit.
AMR does not cost any taxpayer dollars? Then why do they have a contract?
What a ridiculous assertion!
The contract is to provide services. They bill insurance for those services, and the contract gives them the operating right.
They cost the taxpayers $0. Not ridiculous. Fact.
Why did the local fire department union want to take over the EMT ambulance response? To turn “saving lives” into “saving pensions”!
It is concerning to hear that the local fire department union is trying to take over the contract of the EMT ambulance response, which is currently a private party. This move may remove competition and lead to a degradation in the quality of life-saving service. Moreover, it is highly likely that such a transition would require significant funds from taxpayers, both in terms of upfront investment and ongoing costs like pensions. Ultimately, this move may lead to increased taxes and decreased financial stability for county taxpayers.
A sad day for emergency medicine in Santa Barbara County, we (the community) are now going to have the Fire Dept and AMR fighting for calls and we and our loved ones stuck in the middle will suffer the consequences in our biggest time of need. A big round of appalls for our County Supervisors, caving to the Firefighter’s Unions that have supported them so dearly to get them elected and to serve their agenda. To hear that Fire Chiefs and Firefighters were at the meeting for their agenda and not serving our community today should put things into perspective, it’s about them and not us folks. Just remember, AMR has won the contract multiple times and the Fire Dept has been denied multiple times including protests and appeals until they went crying to the Board of Supervisors who graciously served up the contract on a silver platter to the Fire Dept. not taking into account the research and recommendation from County EMS Staff. This is the stuff nightmares are made of, can’t wait to see the inevitable cluster this will cause in our county. Hug your loved ones a little tighter tonight, your health and theirs is in the hands of politicians now…
A superb typo with so much meaning!
“A big round of APPALLS for our County Supervisors, caving to the Firefighter’s Unions…”
Indeed, many of us are appalled. I lean toward AMR and agreeing with critics, but there is no cited evidence in this thread; no references to evidence to read, so I have not committed myself to a position, nor have I put in the work to research the issue.
But if SB County hs to buy a fleet of ambulances? That just does not sit right.
AND this whole article was a press release by Fire. They didn’t actually win the contract, so the title is an outright lie, it’s going to have no exclusive operating zones? The more I learn about this the more livid I get.
AMR and fire will now be fighting over calls? How is THAT good for anyone? County fire buys up a ton of ambulances at taxpayer expense, then the agencies won’t play nice until we end up right back where we are with taxpayers paying the bill and patients paying the price.
Shame on the Board. Vote for literally anyone else in the upcoming elections.
Lets not forget that that Fire also manipulated the Board into taking the EMS agency out of the Public Health Department where it belongs, and put it under the Fire Department. EMS is the regulatory agency that provides oversight to the EMT’s and Paramedics and ensures policies are followed. So Fire will have the the dispatch center and the regulatory agency under their roof. THAT needs to be stopped. Regulation and quality control needs to be done by the medical community not by Fire and certainly not by the Board.
Who cares
all taxpayers should care
The Ambulance contract is a “for profit business” that the Fire Dept is diving into. They already receive massive amounts of tax-payer dollars – this is not about the service they would provide but the fees they can generate
Here’s the response from AMR. You can be the judge of what a joke the county board is: “ KSBY reached out to American Medical Response (AMR) for comment, and this was their response:
The Fire District for the County lost three times in an RFP process run by the County. Our proposal was judged 317 points better than the Fire District’s by an independent and expert review panel. Our proposal was the best in every category for the community and patients. Since the Fire District lost, it started a smear campaign and had to circumvent the RFP process by going to the Board of Supervisors of the County which we understand is the same Board of Supervisors for the Fire District. The Fire District is driven not by patient interests but by its own pension motives. We are evaluating legal options including, potential violations of the State EMS Act, State procurement laws, and conflicts of interest.
“
I guess this is the source. Thanks for posting, Jeff, but I appreciate a link too.
https://www.ksby.com/news/local-news/sb-co-ems-ambulance-contract-update
I support AMR in pursuing all legal action necessary to correct our corrupt Board of Supervisors. County Fire’s campaign was a joke, stick to putting the wet stuff on the hot stuff.
The County Board of Supervisors are a puppet to the Fire Departments, especially in budget season.
In addition to the obvious cost and political issues already raised by commenters, remember that Fire Dept employees get early retirements and lucrative pensions that the private sector doesn’t. So, in addition to paying for more equipment and salaries, we will be paying for more long-term public retirement costs.
Sound familiar?
https://reason.org/commentary/with-ems-takeover-attempts-californias-fire-departments-seek-more-taxpayer-funding-to-do-less/
Excellent article, shows exactly what is happening here and what has happened across the state with other communities. We are in for more hurt after calling 911 than we thought…
Why is it that we allow publicly funded agencies, like police and fire, to officially endorse anyone campaigning for or currently in an elected position?
Don’t forget teachers unions! (p.s. I’ve loved all my kids teachers, it isn’t the teachers, it’s the union/system)