By Newspaper Staff
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
Copyright 2007 Cheyenne Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Cheyenne’s paramedic and ambulance provider, American Medical Response, is in hot water with city officials.
And it should be.
City officials revealed last week that during the first five months of this year, 53 people who called for ambulances were told there wasn’t one available.
That’s not what you want to hear when you dial 911 and you or a loved one needs immediate medical help.
May was the worst of all. During that month, there were 20 code 10s in the city and in Laramie County. A code 10 is when an emergency call was made while all ambulances already were assisting other patients.
This is unacceptable.
A spokeswoman for AMR is hoping to comfort the people of Cheyenne by saying that the number of Code 10s is never more than 2 percent.
“Smaller than 1 percent is optimal,” says Cynthia Wentworth, AMR’s director of communications and government relations.
What is optimal, Ms. Wentworth, is 0 percent. One percent is, perhaps, acceptable - if you or your loved one is not the patient. And 2 percent? Forget about it.
Unfortunately, having Code 10s is nothing new for AMR. A high number of these incidents in 2004 forced Mayor Jack Spiker to implement a program to station paramedics at each of the city’s fire stations, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
That has been the saving grace for the city. If AMR was unable to respond, at least a Cheyenne paramedic/firefighter was able to help. Unfortunately, Laramie County residents are not that lucky - and one wonders why their county commissioners are pooh-poohing this problem.
What the city must do is simple: It must tell AMR that either it needs to get its act in gear or it needs to hit the road.
The city should give the company until Sept. 1 to get its act together. If it doesn’t, then the city needs to find another provider.
That shouldn’t be too difficult. Two already have shown interest in providing support in Cheyenne after word got out that AMR was not living up to its contract.
The current contract with Cheyenne expires in December 2008, but the city can’t wait that long to make sure AMR is responsive to the medical needs of this city.
What happens if someone dies because there is no ambulance available to transport him or her to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center? Will city officials - or their constituents - still be as tolerant?
It’s time for AMR to step up to the plate and make the necessary corrections.
An advanced life support ambulance for Cheyenne was put into service by AMR on July 2, which brings peak deployment from four to five vehicles during the week. A sixth ambulance will be added whenever possible, using part-time and full-time overtime personnel.
These are good starts. But more needs to be done, and it needs to be done in a hurry.
On the other hand, we don’t want the city to even consider taking over the ambulance service. It has neither the expertise nor the finances to take that on. And then there is the matter of government inefficiency.
This problem should not be allowed to fester over the next 18 months. If AMR doesn’t have things in order by Sept. 1, this city needs to start looking elsewhere.