Fire Dept. medical transport stacks up

Erin Neff

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 11:39 a.m.

An anticipated study of the Las Vegas Fire Department's fledgling medical transport business could pave the way toward the program's expansion.

And it could also prove a wedge in the contentious debate between two ambulance companies struggling over the right to transport Las Vegas Valley patients.

The blue-ribbon panel report presented to the City Council on Wednesday shows the fire department met its anticipated goal during the first full year of its medical transport business without sacrificing fire service.

In a report interrupted by a bomb threat, Fire Chief Mario Trevino said his department handled 7.89 percent of emergency patient transports citywide and projects $503,000 in revenue for the first year.

"These transports were done without adding additional staff," Trevino said.

But the success for the fire department spelled financial trouble for American Medical Services, which experienced a $727,000 loss in revenue as a result of the fire department's increases.

"The city needs to continually incrementally move toward a higher number," said Councilman Larry Brown about the fire department's number of transports. "If this report pushes us in that direction, what does that do from a policy perspective to AMR?"

Trace Skeen, AMR's chief executive in Southern Nevada, said the program did not result in the layoffs of any AMR staff. He said the revenue loss came, in part, because AMR kept all of its ambulances in service throughout the yearlong trial.

"What we weren't able to do is take units off the street," Skeen said.

But AMR's competitor, Southwest Ambulance, has a different view.

"It's a wonder that their revenues went down and their response times went down," Southwest executive John Wilson said.

Southwest will come before the city Feb. 2 to ask for approval to proceed with plans for an ambulance franchise. The county already authorized Southwest to begin such plans. However, the county's approval requires similar approval from the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas.

The North Las Vegas City Council will consider the issue Feb. 16.

AMR is currently the only ambulance provider in Clark County.

Wilson and Sharon Henry, Southwest's other executive partner, both said the blue-ribbon report has little impact on their goal.

"Our intent was always to augment the system," Wilson said. "The report has no impact."