The Redondo Beach Fire Department is looking to begin providing its own emergency medical transportation, breaking away from Los Angeles County-supplied services after more than a decade.
For the past ten years, McCormick Ambulance Company has been providing services for Redondo Beach under a contract with the county. The contract is up for renewal this year, and sensing their opportunity, Redondo Beach plans to submit a proposal to provide services for its own citizens.
The belief, according to Fire Chief Robert Metzger, is that the city’s own firefighters and paramedics are the best option for providing care to Redondo Beach due to continuity of care.
“Acquiring transport duties will improve services, reduce on-scene time and give us the the ability to fully vet ambulance personnel,” Metzger said in a report to the Redondo Beach City Council on March 1. “We think, based on an improvement to patient care, it would behoove us to investigate this further.”
Moreover, it could be a big financial benefit to the City of Redondo Beach. According to figures provided to the city, McCormick’s gross service billings came out to approximately $3.5 million dollars, netting about half of that. Redondo’s passthrough gain, Metzger said, was about $380,000.
Should the city begin providing its own services, Redondo Beach could stand to gain between $1 million to $1.75 million annually.
The concern is whether or not the county will recognize the city’s rights to provide its own services. Under Health and Safety Code 1797.224, public fire departments have the right to provide transport services so long as they have never waived them. The county believes that a letter sent by the City waived those rights; the City contends that they intended to keep in place the private contractor services they had at the time.
The City, Metzger says, could go into a legal discussion with the County over the issue — but for now, he’s looking for the County to accept RBFD’s proposal to provide services on its own.
The Council granted RBFD approval to pursue providing its own services, meaning that the City is behind the effort. Crucially, the firefighters union is as well.
“We know that it’s a big benefit to the city as an income source, but more importantly, it’s better for the citizens and potential patients,” said union president Brad Sweatt. “I’m not saying McCormick has ever provided bad service, but having the ability to work within ourselves in all aspects of a call is more efficient and provides better overall service.”
There are still a few questions, particularly with how RBFD plans to run ambulance services; both the union and management are leaning toward a model in which non-sworn personnel are hired to drive the ambulances to emergencies.
Startup costs are another. At the March 1 meeting, Metzger said that initial costs could come out to $550,000 for new, fully-equipped ambulances. However, he said that new research has shown a lower costs, though there was nothing concrete he felt comfortable revealing quite yet. The County’s window for the department to submit its proposal for service closes on May 4.
“There have to be three entities that want this: the city, administration and the union,” Sweatt said. “As it is now, we do; we want this and we hope we can finish this with a good model and we’re able to negotiate an appropriate deal in the end.”
“This is a win-win for Redondo Beach if we can pull it off,” Mayor Steve Aspel said at the March 1 meeting. “I would rather have our medics transport me than McCormick’s…I’m all for this.”
