Recently the Mayor of our fair city explained the financial difficulties we are in. Like so many cities we are spending more than we take in. There are so many good sounding projects just waiting for the city to fund them, yet even if they sound like a good thing to be doing, no one seems to care whether they are cost effective.
Let’s take for example our ambulance service, wonderful idea and for a small town like Mesquite with a large retiree population, it is seemingly irreplaceable. Fast and efficient they are and lifesaving in many cases. They are a real asset to our community. But sometimes a good idea morphs into something that gets out of hand.
A couple of ambulances and local door to hospital service and even some lifesaving emergency care and keeping firefighters busy while waiting for something to happen were the ideas. But let’s look at what has happened; we now have four $250,000 vehicles and a large crew of emergency techs to cover every eventuality. They do a great job, are fast, well trained and very professional. So what’s the problem?
The problem is that it is not run like a business but more like a free service. There are many ambulance services run by private companies that actually make money. Some fire departments have seen a huge new business they can be engaged in that will keep their firefighters busy and raise their perceived value to their service area. Not a bad idea if you run it efficiently, but what if you don’t? Large amounts of money are wasted.
It might be a good idea if our mayor and city council looked at our “business” of ambulance service. I understand that they collect just 31% of their billing. How many businesses would survive by only collecting from about 1/3 of the customers? Somehow this thing has gotten out of hand. Now we all know the firefighters are not bill collectors but somebody is and we need to hire them. Any service company that only collects 31% of the billing they handle needs to be replaced, especial y when Medicare is involved in many of the billings. Makes you wonder if it’s that same old company out of Salt Lake City still doing the billing.
Even if we are willing to accept a very low collection rate, we need to look where we can cut back on our business losses. Sending someone out in a real emergency seems to be the core of the business and makes sense. It’s a real plus when we can get people to the hospital as quickly as possible and render emergence help if needed. So what is the problem?
Somehow we have drifted from the core business and expanded into the transportation business. I’m not talking about emergency service; I’m talking about non-emergency medical transportation to Las Vegas and St George. Think of the resources involved, a $250,000 vehicle driven a long distance by two well-trained firefighters for no reason except it’s an expansion of our money losing service. Unfortunately, while these two firefighters are on the road, others now have to be available and sometimes at overtime rates.
There are many companies that will transport medical patients under non-emergency conditions, people who just need to be transferred to another location for additional treatment. Those companies also know how to get paid for their services. Maybe if we shift out of the non-emergency transportation business, we will not wear out our nice new ambulances, not have to staff up because people are on the road and then stop losing money.
Please remember were not talking about cutting emergency service to the hospital here or another location, we’re talking about getting out of the money losing non-emergency transportation business. Maybe next time we will only be replacing 1 vehicle instead of four. We should see overtime pay drop and maybe through attrition, staffing levels reduced, of course that is dependent on the fire department acting like a well-run business.
I agree with Mike. One thing that helped us make our mind up about living in Mesquite was the hospital and services provided. However, there is a perception that this small community needs to provide the same level of service as Las Vegas. Most communities of this size would have at a maximum two ambulances and a volunteer staff. There are many great volunteer’s and paid workers with great hearts; but at some point the city fathers will have to come to the realization that the size of the community can not support unchecked growth of departments. Being fiscally conservative is a hard choice; but because of past mis-steps those hard choices are going to have to be made. I truly wish we could provide all services anyone would like; but that is not how life is. Life is reality and reality forces tough choices.
Mike – how many private ambulance companys in mesquite?
None that i can think of- they come outa vegas or st. George
Your idea is moronic- and for what i pay for taxes here- i am happy to have this level of service from our fine fire and police dept.
Sounds like your trying to knock out some service here and maybe start an ambulance company.
Ahh,the privatazation route – been there -done that – it usually does not end good.
Why don’t you move to vegas if you do not like it here.
I ,as a senior citizen here happen to love the family friendly services here in mesquite and get a lot of bang for the buck.hp
You are correct that there are no private ambulance services here in town but all private companies don’t have to be located here in Mesquite. We already have many companies that serve Mesquite out of St George and Las Vegas. Whatever the service is they have to drive both ways. Didn’t you read the Mayor’s plea for ideas to save money and non-emergency medical transportation is costing the city lots of money. Sometimes you just can’t afford everything you dream about. I sure hope you’re one who pays for the services you use but what about those who don’t? People are using the service and then not paying the bill. How long can any business survive on less than half of the cost of their service? Let’s say we do nothing, what happens when the city runs out of money, more important services than this will have to be cut. This is a nice service and they do a good job but sometimes you just can’t afford it. We all love the family friendly service here in Mesquite but I don’t want to see the city go broke do you?