End the bonuses

Friday, May 1, 2009 | 2 a.m.

It’s not unusual for employers to reward workers who perform beyond the call of duty. That’s why bonuses exist.

One does not expect bonuses to be paid, though, for routine work.

That is why it is outrageous that Las Vegas emergency medical technicians and paramedics get extra pay for simply completing paperwork properly after taking individuals to the hospital.

As reported last week by Joe Schoenmann in the Las Vegas Sun, a sister publication of In Business Las Vegas, EMTs get $20 and paramedics collect $30 per hospital run. From 2002 through 2008, a whopping $2.6 million in bonuses were paid.

The city defends this practice by arguing that properly completed paperwork increases the collection of money from the individuals and their insurers, which helps defray the city’s ambulance transport costs.

But we think the paperwork should be part of the job, as it is in Clark County and all other places contacted by the Sun. One of those places is Denver, where Chris Colwell, medical director of that city’s paramedic division, said: “Accurate documentation of the medical care and the medical trip report is, as we call it, part of the paramedic’s job.”

There is no legitimate reason for granting an exception to emergency medical employees at Las Vegas Fire & Rescue.

When the city hammers out a new contract with Firefighters Local 1285 this summer, the paperwork bonuses should be eliminated. With local governments feeling enormous strain from the crippled economy, it defies reason that the city would continue to fork over cash for paperwork that should be completed as part of the job.

Surely the city can find a saner way to improve collection rates from the individuals and their insurers.