By Rusty Marks
Staff writer
Kanawha County emergency service officials accuse an Ohio-based ambulance company of “masquerading as an emergency ambulance service” and intentionally misleading the public about their credentials, according to documents sent to the state Office of Emergency Services.
Joe Lynch, executive director of the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority, said crews from Ohio-based Life Ambulance are trying to beat county ambulances to the scene of accidents to take victims to local hospitals.
Ambulance rides cost hundreds of dollars.
“It’s purely about money,” Lynch said Monday. “It’s to the point where it’s confusing the public, and it’s circumventing the 911 system. We’re concerned it’s going to affect the quality of care that the public deserves.”
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said Life Ambulance is not authorized to provide emergency transportation in Kanawha County. Only the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority and the Charleston Fire Department are authorized to respond to emergencies, he said.
“The law allows us to dictate who makes emergency calls in the county, and they aren’t it,” Carper said. “We do this for a reason.”
Ordinarily, having an ambulance show up at the scene of an accident is a good thing, Lynch said. But he said county officials are worried about Life Ambulance’s employee training and the state of their equipment.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed with the Ohio Medical Transportation Board, Lynch discovered that Life Ambulance has been fined $30,000 since 2005 and received five complaints in Ohio, including operating an unpermitted ambulance, drivers operating without proper training and complaints about the condition of Life Ambulance vehicles or equipment.
County officials believe Life Ambulance crews are listening to police scanners to find out about accidents, then sending ambulances without being dispatched by local 911 dispatchers. According to information sent to the state Office of Emergency Services, Life Ambulance sent six vehicles to one recent accident.
Lynch said staff at local hospitals have also complained about Life Ambulance crews attempting to muscle their way into the hospital or hijack patients. More importantly, he said, hospital staff have complained about Life Ambulance crews bringing in patients who should have received emergency care before being put in the ambulance.
Gene Meadows, general counsel at Life Ambulance’s headquarters in Portsmouth, Ohio, said Life Ambulance crews aren’t listening to police scanners in an attempt to hijack patients.
“We’ve got enough calls that are coming in,” he said.
But, he said, “With the number of ambulances we have on the road, we can’t help but come across [car crashes.]
“If there’s someone lying on the side of the road who needs assistance, we can’t help but stop and assist them.”
Contacted by cellular phone in a car on his way to Indiana, Meadows said he did not have access to company records on Monday.
He did not immediately know how many ambulances Life Ambulance operates in Kanawha County, how many employees the company has in the county or how much the company is paid to take an accident victim to the hospital.
Reach Rusty Marks at rusty [email protected] or 348-1215.
(c) 2008 Charleston Gazette, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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