By Joe Schoenmann
The Las Vegas Sun
LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas pays its paramedics and EMTs a bonus said to be unique — for properly filling out paperwork. Those payments totaled more than $600,000 last year, and Clark County officials are worried the emergency workers in their fire department will try to copy their city colleagues.
Las Vegas’ emergency medical technicians and paramedics are paid extra for properly filling out paperwork after transporting someone to the hospital, $20 for an EMT and $30 for each paramedic.
Diana Paul, spokeswoman for the city, said the “quality assurance documentation pay” has been in place since January 2002 to improve the completion of paperwork in order to “get a better collection rate” from individuals and insurance companies. Through the end of 2008, the bonuses totaled $2.6 million.
Dean Fletcher, president of Firefighters Local 1285, said he knows of no other fire department in the country that gets documentation pay. Neither did other fire departments in the valley or a handful of out-of-state fire departments contacted by the Sun. They all consider filling out the paperwork properly just part of the job.
Full Story: Firefighters from other departments scoff, saying paperwork is part of the job