Courtesy of indystar.com, the headline reads “Surging overtime strangles IFD budget”.
The article, http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080407/NEWS/80407048 , states that IFD has already doubled the entire OT budget for the year, and is on the pace to end up $2 million in the red.
One of the contributing factors cited by The Star, EMS. “IFD planned as if the township ambulance services would merge with Wishard Health Services, Greeson said, which would have allowed a reduction in employees.”
At least we know what Bart had up his sleeve in regard to EMS in Marion County. What we don’t know however, is what went wrong. Why didn’t it happen, who hung up the deal, or who dropped the ball here. Is this still being considered as an option?
One of the solutions for fixing the problem? Increasing the Ambulance fees. The going rate, according to IFD is $365 - $625, depending on the level of care. How much will they go up? If this does not generate the required revenue, will there be reductions in EMS?
Again, I ask Mayor Ballard and Public Safety Director Newman to step forward and address the state of Marion County EMS with us, the people who provide it every day. We shouldn’t have to be blindsided by this type of information from The Indianapolis Star.
Stay Safe
Dee
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Indy EMS, your local 3rd service blog. We are not the police, and no matter what our uniforms say, most of us are not firefighters. This is our site. This is where we can come to exchange ideas, develop plans, and yes even vent. Please keep it clean, on point, and respectful to others and their ideas. Oh yeah, and don't forget HIPPA. We wouldn't want to end up unemployed or in court for a slip of the tongue. Read. Post & Enjoy.
6 comments:
I guess now it is time to hear from the illustrious "firefighters" from downtown on how we are even more of a drain than originally thought.
This "illustrious Firefighter" knows it's not EMS's fault. We are not all bad.
I hope the Mayor takes this opportunity to get rid of all the IFD ambulances once and for all.
Turn it all over to Wishard. Civilian employees should not wear the same uniform that so many brothers have died wearing.
Civilians are not firefighters! They shouldn't be wearing the same uniform, and IFD doesn't need ambulances to survive!
To 3:58, 80 percent of your G*d Dam& job is EMS! And congrats on the obvious statement of the day that civilians are not firefighters. Proves your intelligence right there. What civilians are, especially medics, are professional, highly trained, public safety providers. I gave 2 years of my life for medic class, working full-time and going to school, and I take pride in the fact that I have a real chance of saving a life everytime the tones go off. As far as the uniform goes, you won't find someone more grateful for all the work firefighters do and the ultimate sacrifice paid by many. But EMS workers are exposed to many hazards as well. Violent/hostile patients, weather extremes that affect the body, blood/body fluid exposures, and remember, at a PI we are working side by side as a TEAM and traffic is a risk for both of us equally. The problem we have always faced in getting the respect we deserve is that egomaniacs like yourself think all you have to do is fight fire and let the office take care of your "EMT CERT". Remember the oath you took, public safety is more than just slinging water around.
To 6:36, don't give that a#$hole the time or day, that is exactly he or she is wanting, to get some flames under us. The fact is our Public Saftey Dir gave us 7 more paramedics and 2 emt's. THAT ARE CIV's not firefighters. If it comes down to it, worse case they get rid of civ program, they'll just have to move fire over to the ambulance. If people hate the ambulance so much now, wonder what will happen then. There will always be people that WILL always be unhappy, just ignore their ignorance!
What an ignorant and typical thing for an "old school" IFD firefighter to say, I guess they don't understand the fact that it may be one of those "damn Civilians" standing over them one day when they have been hurt on the job, well guess what hose jockey I will not be giving you anything for the pain and it will be a long slow ride to the ED so maybe you ought to think about that the next time you run your "Merit Mouth".
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