Who decides which ambulance responds and where you will be taken when you call 911? Can you specify where you want to be taken? Does each ambulance service decide which hospital to go to? Do rates differ for each ambulance service? Is there a city ambulance service? What you should know
about city ambulancesAll 911 calls requesting ambulance service are relayed to the city's Emergency Medical Services dispatch center. (Police calls are routed to police dispatch; fire calls to fire dispatch.)
"Our job is to respond to 911 calls," Donnie Gates, EMS chief of operations, said of city ambulances. There are two private ambulance services on Oahu, Mercy Ambulance and International Life Support, which handle transfers between medical facilities, stand-by at sporting events, etc., he said.
The city contracts with them to provide ambulances "when we're strapped," Gates said.
As much as possible, EMS will try to accommodate patient requests to be taken to the hospital of their choice. However, because of budget constraints and increasing calls for ambulance services, transportation guidelines have had to be set, Gates said.
Those guidelines boil down to this: If an ambulance can take you to the hospital of your choice and get back to its designated district within 20 minutes, then you will be accommodated. If not, you will be taken to the nearest appropriate facility.
Gates gave this example: It's 9 a.m. Monday and someone in Waianae calls for an ambulance. The hospital of choice is Kaiser in town. However, the ambulance would then be gone for more than 20 minutes, so the decision is made to take you to St. Francis Hospital West in Ewa.
Initially, adoption of that transportation policy "caused quite a stir," Gates said. "But now, after we explain it, people understand what we're trying to do," which is be available to as many people as possible, he said.
The city has two flat ambulance fees: $400 for transportation alone; $450 if medication is administered.
More Kokua Line
in today’s Star-Bulletin:
- Mo-ped drivers don't need insurance
- Mahalo
- Fourth of July festivities
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