May 21, 2018

May 21, 2018

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are having a good Spring. It went from Winter to a warm Spring in Peoria pretty quickly this year.

On January 1, 2018 two new PFD Engines became Advanced Life Support--Engines 3 and Central Station in downtown in Peoria. There are now 5 PFD Engines which are ALS--Engines 3, Central, 12, 20, and 4. 

I ran across this article today in Emergency Medicine Abstracts.

Effects Of Emergency Medical Services Agency Ownership Status On Patient Transport Deziel, J., Prehosp Emerg Care 21(6):729, November-December 2017

BACKGROUND: Various patient demographic characteristics have been reported to influence the unnecessary use of emergency medical services (EMS) for ambulance transport of non-acute conditions.  Structural factors such as generation of revenue may also be a factor.  Private EMS agencies have a stronger incentive than publicly-funded EMS services to transport patients to receive insurance reimbursement.  

METHODS: This retrospective study from Western Carolina University School of Health Sciences analyzed all 9-1-1 ambulance call data for the state of Virginia during 2009-2013 to assess differences in patient transport decisions between privately funded versus publicly funded EMS agencies.

RESULTS: Data included more than 4.6 million emergency ambulance requests during the study period; patients were 45% female and 36% male (19% unknown) and had a mean age of 52 years. Responding agencies were publicly funded in 70% of cases (primarily fire departments) and privately funded in 30% (mainly nonprofit organizations). Public organizations had transport rates of 56.5% for fire departments and 61.8% for government non-fire organizations, while rates for private agencies were 73.6% for nonprofit EMS, 89.5% for for-profit EMS, and 80.0% for hospital-based EMS. In adjusted analyses with fire departments as the reference group, all other EMS entities were more likely to transport patients, with odds ratios of 1.25 for government non-fire, 2.12 for private nonprofit EMS, 4.56 for private for-profit EMS, and 4.06 for private hospital-based EMS (all comparisons, p

CONCLUSIONS: EMS agency ownership status appears to significantly influence patient transport decisions, with private profit-generating agencies most likely to transport.  

16 references (jddeziel@wcu.edu – no reprints) 

PMID: 28657800 

EDITOR’S COMMENTARY: This retrospective study of over 4.6 million ambulance requests in the state of Virginia looked at the decision to transport patients by agency ownership type (e.g., private vs non-profit). They found that private ambulance companies were 4.5 times more likely to transport patients than their publicly funded counterparts. The authors conclude that private ambulance services are incentivized toward patient transport.

Copyright 2018 by Emergency Medical Abstracts – All Rights Reserved  5/18 - #15

This article makes me think of AMT transporting people in Peoria. AMT is the only ALS and transport agency in Peoria. AMT is backed by Peoria's three hospitals.

Just recently, the City of Peoria hired Fitch and Associates to consult regarding EMS in Peoria. Interestingly, OSF and Methodist contributed $25 K to this study and the City of Peoria contributed $25 K to study this. 

Andrew Rand, the CEO of AMT has long been a fan of Fitch and vice versa. Fitch awarded Mr. Rand their Pinnacle Award in 2013. 

I wonder if Fitch will be unbiased when they come to town and look at EMS?