Arlington irks private ambulance service
Published 10:46 pm Friday, May 2, 2008
ARLINGTON — Employees of a private ambulance company worry that a proposed city ordinance could divert business from the company to the city’s fire department.
The ordinance would require ambulance companies that operate in Arlington to meet state standards, sets the city as the primary responder for emergency calls and allow the fire department to handle nonemergency transports within the city limits.
Northwest Ambulance general manager Andrew Rigot believes that the ordinance’s aim is to cut into the company’s business.
“The city feels we are taking away something that has historically belonged to them,” Rigot said. “But this could be crippling to our company.”
Fire Chief Jim Rankin said the ordinance is proposed in part to preserve revenues to the city from nonemergency patient transportation. Since the Arlington-based Northwest Ambulance opened for business last summer, those revenues have decreased.
Even so, that’s not the main reason for the ordinance, Rankin said.
As the city grows, there will be an increase in the need for ambulance services, he said. The ambulance ordinance assures that a standard level of care is given to all who use ambulances and it clarifies the roles of public and private ambulance providers, Rankin said.
The ordinance will be discussed at a public hearing later this month.
The city has gone to Cascade Valley Hospital and other health-care facilities in the city to ask that Arlington be the primary provider for nonemergency ambulance service. However, any health facility in Arlington can arrange nonemergency business with a private ambulance company, Rankin said.
“We don’t have a right to regulate commerce in the city,” Rankin said. “We are trying maintain a revenue source.”
The fees for patient transports, such as from Cascade Valley Hospital to nursing care facilities, help fund the city’s entire emergency medical system, Rankin said.
Northwest Ambulance got its start when a few local emergency medical technicians saw a need to provide transportation service between medical facilities, Rigot said. The company does not provide emergency medical service, but rather a medical taxi service, he said.
The proposed ordinance allows for private nonemergency ambulance services as long as state standards are met. The existing companies doing business in Arlington, including Northwest Ambulance, already comply, Rankin said.
Still, Rigot said he wonders what the city will do if the fire department is busy with emergencies and they are scheduled to handle a nonemergency patient.
“This isn’t what the taxpayers are paying for,” Rigot said.
If the fire department can’t take a nonemergency call, it will refer the caller to private ambulance provider, Rankin said.
That isn’t much reassurance to Northwest Ambulance, which employs more than a dozen emergency medical technicians and registered nurses.
“It’s hard to run a business when we’re just picking up their slack,” Rigot said.
Reporter Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427 or gfiege@heraldnet.com.
May 19 hearing set
A public hearing regarding a proposed city ordinance establishing rules for nonemergency ambulance service is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 19 in the Arlington City Council chambers, 110 E. Third St.
