It was talked about years ago, and it's time we do this now.
Start our own ambulance type service in the city through the fire dept.
The knox co ambulance service is cutting back, as I understand due to problems with medicare and medicaid billing and payments. I understand that problem, as that is what my daughter does where she works, bills medicaid and medicare, and it's a crazy system.
We've got the administrative staff already in place in the city offices to handle this, just make one of them responsible for this task. Hire another clerk if necessary.
Have to basic run rates, one for in city, one for out of city.
It's time we did this. Although I'm sure our city manager will come up with a list of reason not to do it, but, in my opinion, his credibility is not really all that right now, with all the tax bill problems we have because of him.
have a ambulance ran out of the fire department for city only would be good,but the only problem is we only have 6 guys on duty,5 if somebody is off,it would be hard to do with that number.if you have two guys on a heart attack,two going out of town,1 or 2 guys to cover the city in case of a fire call,there is no way we could do all that with 5 or 6 guys on duty,and all of the firefighter's are not emt's.you would just about need 4 more guys per shift just to run the ambulance's if the city ever did start.
Very good points Eric, but, the bottom line would be if we started something like this, which we need to, we would definitely have to hire more people, and I'm all for that. We need this service, and the fire dept. is the right place to put it into. We could cross train all the firemen as paramedics eventually, and our whole dept would be available for use in this area, as well as fighting fires.
Corbin needs to move into the 21st century, and emergency services is one way to do it.
I think its a great idea, and I would be the first paramedic in line to apply, but I just dont see the city doing it. The startup cost alone will keep them from doing it
bubby, you're right about not seeing the city do this, as do most people I've talked with about this type thing. You have to remember the mentality of our city leaders with regard to certain issues, and their justifications for doing or not doing something.
Years ago, we had a police chief that said dogs K-9 was just a fad and had no place in police work, and the officer that handled the dog did so on his own. The officer fed the dog, took care of him, and trained him on his own. The chief tried to get rid of him, but, thankfully, the chief retired before the dog handler quit. We now have a dog, and need more in my opinion. I know that's a police story, but the concept is the same.
Same goes for our cable tv system. We had the opportunity to do our own city owned cable system a long time ago. Our city leaders had no clue what to do, so who did they talk to, the darn cable company manager that ran our cable at the time. He told them it was a bad idea. Of course he would, it's his job that is on the line. Then, when his company was bought and sold a few times, they hired the man as city manager. Now, cities across the nation are operating their own cable systems.
The fire dept paramedic program is perfect for a town and area such as corbin. We have the basic infrastructure, we just need to expand some things. One of the main things would be to add administrative capabilities to deal with the insurance billing, and medicare and medicaid paperwork. The city is there to provide a service, not make a profit.
Of course, our city manager wouldn't go along with this, and his only argument would be the start up costs like you said. But, other than that, he would have no argument.
It's something that needs looked into very seriously, but, with the leaders we have now, I dont' see it either.
Like everyone said it would be a good idea but i bet if you asked Mr Gregory he would say (cost to much) just like he Mr Miller Mr Onkst did when they put all of the firefighters, and the community at risk when they started closing the Fire station on 18th st. Due to overtime issues, Just look at the money they saved. I bet if you looked into what the city spends on gas a day to give all dept heads and others a car or truck to drive home the city could probley hire several Firefighters / EMT to work. Guess we won't go there it will touch a few nerves with some the the ones driving the autos for personal use. On the ambulance issue it would probley not make alot of money but it would most likley pay for itself ,Why dont we talk to some of the local Ambulance service about day to day cost . This issue will not be a big one until a few people have to waite to long for medical care then we will get things going.
Cornbread wrote:Like everyone said it would be a good idea but i bet if you asked Mr Gregory he would say (cost to much) just like he Mr Miller Mr Onkst did when they put all of the firefighters, and the community at risk when they started closing the Fire station on 18th st. Due to overtime issues, Just look at the money they saved. I bet if you looked into what the city spends on gas a day to give all dept heads and others a car or truck to drive home the city could probley hire several Firefighters / EMT to work. Guess we won't go there it will touch a few nerves with some the the ones driving the autos for personal use. On the ambulance issue it would probley not make alot of money but it would most likley pay for itself ,Why dont we talk to some of the local Ambulance service about day to day cost . This issue will not be a big one until a few people have to waite to long for medical care then we will get things going. Good comments, Cornbread. Thanks.
I thought the only ones driving a city owned car was the city manager, and then only during work hours. This came up years ago with another city manager, and he talked them into giving him a car allowance to buy his own car with as long as he used it for city business, and the city paid the insurance and gas for that.
Yes, I recall the issue Onkst and Miller brought up about the south corbin station. And, they're not here anymore thank goodness, and that's my opinion and I'm entitled to it. And, before anyone calls me a trouble maker, that's the problem in corbin now with many things, no one want's to challenge our leaders on their decisions.
We've got a million bucks in the bank right now according to Farris. And if you took the money we're losing to knox county through our occupational taxes right now, that would start up and run a fire dept paramedic service, and that alone. Not pay for it outright, but start it and run it.
Cornbread, would you care to tell us which city officials drive home city owned vehicles, I'd love to know.
Oh, we will start of with city manager, police chief and every policeman working, fire chief, asst chief , street dept, maintaince dept ,parks and rec. that is a few dont really know the reason, they used to say they done it so if they got called in the would have the car . In my experence if you call someone in it most likely wont be the dept head like the street dept the real workers drive there on cars ,and same goes for the fire dept ,the city don't supply all fireman with a car in case they get called in . But maybe if they get a ambulance service the city can cross trian all these people to work with the fire dept. Sure this will be a great idea
It does cost a lot to start an ambulance service. And you have to get paperwork from the state saying that there is a need for the service. Buying trucks, equipment for those trucks, insurance, etc.... cost a lot. And it takes 3 months to start recieving money from medicare/medicaid after you start billing, so you would have to get the money to carry the service that long. But, if it was run right, you could make the city money. If everything is handled right and depending on what runs you took (just emergency runs, or doctors appointments, take homes, and transfers out of the hospital), you could make a killing.
We don't need this type of service to really "make" money in the normal profit sense, only to pay expenses, maintain and replace equipment as needed by charging the necessary fees, have a small contingency fund, and serve the public. To get the CON (certificate of need) wouldn't be a major problem I don't think. The start up costs, while you're right in them being high, would be worth it in the long run. I feel the key would be the administrative costs and staff, which is already on hand in the city offices. You simply add duties to what you already have, and hire only if you need to. The planning would be to find the trained medical staff, hire them, and then have a plan for implementing the service. But then, that shouldn't be a problem, we have a city manager, and he was (is) on the knox county ambulance board, so he should know a little bit about this type thing.
This is one area where I feel an ambulance tax, like knox county's, would be a fair thing to impose. I don't think anyone would mind it either. I lived in knox county for a few years, and I truly didn't mind the small amount of ambulance tax I paid on my property taxes and such.
Cornbread, you have some good points. I'm going to nose around and see what I can find out as well. Let us know any more details you may have too.
I dont think you would have a problem finding people to work the truck, if the pay was good. Most all of us have 2 ems jobs just because one dosent pay enough. But, if we had hazardous duty retirement offered like the fire department has now, that would be a big lure for emt's and medics. As for mentioning the profit that could be made from an ambulance, I figured that if you approached the city with the fact that they could pump some money into the budget instead of starting a service that would only drain the budget, then maby they would consider it a little more. Of the three emergency services (fire, police, and ems), ems is the only one that can make money, because its the only one that can generate revenue.
You're right in your consideration that the ambulance service will bring in revenue. I should have explained further that I didn't feel it should be considered a money making venture but rather one that will pay for itself and the extra revenue could be used for purchasing additional equipment and such.
I would say the retirement issues you brought up would be the main stumbling block for our city manager and city officials to approve this venture. They would look past the service it would provide to our city residents, and only look in dollars spent for the long term. After all, our illustrious city manager is the one who can't get our property tax bills out on time.
I would say this could change with the next election, but I don't feel it will. The 4 commissioners sitting now are running again, with only one more person filed to run against them, and frankly, he doesn't have the vision for this either. I don't feel our mayor would push for it either.
Keep up your good work though, your group is appreciated by us all.
