By Anne Lindberg
Tampa Bay Times
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Some people who call for emergency medical services in this city may be surprised by what they don’t see -- a fire truck or a red ambulance-style truck.
Instead, they see a sport utility vehicle with two firefighter-paramedics.
The SUV is an experiment that Clearwater fire officials are running out of the Court Street fire station to see if they can save money on EMS calls. If successful, the department might buy a second SUV to use for EMS calls on the beach.
“We’re just trying to collect data,” Clearwater fire Chief Robert Weiss said. “We’re doing a little experiment.”
The idea, Weiss said, sprang from a desire to save the EMS money. A rescue vehicle -- the ones that look like ambulances -- costs between $170,000 to $200,000, he said. The SUV, outfitted to withstand heavy use, costs less than $50,000, he said.
Given those figures, Weiss said fire officials looked at their rescue trucks, which don’t generally transport patients to the hospital but are used as backup in case of a problem with the ambulances that normally carry sick people. They noticed that the rescue at Station 45, 1140 Court St., averaged about one transport a year for the past four years.
In view of the low transport figure and the high cost, Weiss said, the department decided in December to try a six- to eight-month experiment using an SUV. The vehicle could carry all the medical equipment -- minus the stretcher -- that the rescue truck could carry. If successful, he said, the department plans to buy one for Station 46, at 534 Mandalay Ave., in Clearwater Beach. That station historically doesn’t transport a lot of patients, he said, and the SUV is more maneuverable when it comes to negotiating the beach itself and the amount of traffic on the roads there.
“It’s much easier to handle than the big unit,” Weiss said.
The experiment has the support of Pinellas County, which funds the EMS service provided by the county’s 18 fire departments. Craig Hare, the county’s director of EMS and fire administration, said the experiment was cleared with Pinellas before it began. Hare said he thinks the SUV will be much more maneuverable on the beaches and more comfortable for the firefighters who have to ride in it.
This is not the first time a Pinellas fire department has tried to use an SUV instead of a rescue truck. Largo tried many years ago, Chief Shelby Willis said. But Willis said the experiment failed because the then-chief bought an SUV off the showroom floor. The vehicle, she said, was torn apart from wear within six or so months and Largo went back to using rescues.
Weiss said he’s not afraid that will happen with Clearwater’s vehicle because the city paid to upgrade its suspension and other systems to help it withstand heavy use.
But Sean Becker, head of the Clearwater fire union, said his members are skeptical. They’re not sure the SUV is as practical or safe as a rescue vehicle. The large vehicle acts as a buffer between firefighters and traffic when they’re on calls. Drivers might not be so wary of an SUV.
Weiss said he doesn’t think safety will be an issue. Other drivers won’t have a problem seeing it, he said, because “we’ve lit it up like a Christmas tree.”
Though Weiss said he thinks the experiment will be a success, he and Hare agree that SUVs should not be used everywhere. Some rescues transport a fair amount of patients, Weiss said, and it would be impractical to have a vehicle not capable of transport answering calls in those areas.
Hare said that rescue vehicles are needed in cases of emergencies, and to back up the system in situations like hurricanes or other disasters. It would be a mistake, he said, to get rid of them all.
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©2015 Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.)