ALS Ambulance Service

By state law, a municipality is responsible for the ambulatory care of their community. Mattoon mostly handles this by licensing and regulating private ambulance companies. In recent years, the Mattoon Fire Department has been operating as a backup with a Basic Life Support ambulance, and recently upgraded that ambulance to Advanced Life Support.

The city’s ambulance service should be used for emergency care only. Non-emergency transfers should, and will be left to the private firms. As long as there are two private companies in town, I have reservations on whether the city should enter the rotation. I can’t think of anytime where there have been three companies in rotating coverage.

My position on this is the same as it was during the election. If the City of Mattoon goes into the ambulance business, three conditions must be met.
1. It must improve public safety.
2. It won’t lose the city money.
3. It won’t put existing companies out of business.

Before the second ambulance company came to town, Mattoon was relying on Charleston for backup ambulance service. They were called 4-5 times per week. They were usually cancelled in route as another ambulance was freed up, but there shouldn’t be such a gap in service. There are many emergencies where minutes count. It can take up to 20 minutes for Charleston to get here. That is a long time to a heart attack patient.

The city has worked with the union to train six more paramedics. This would give MFD enough trained personnel to staff two ALS ambulances. The decision to purchase a second ambulance has not been made. But if one of the existing companies closes, the gap must be able to be filled immediately. It takes two years to train paramedics. We cannot rely on Charleston for two years.

It is the city’s responsibility to make sure we are covered with adequate ambulance service. Communities across the state and nation are increasingly running ambulance services in conjunction with their fire departments. As long as there are two companies in town, I don’t believe the city should or will enter the rotation of regular ambulance service.