OKC Fire Department to launch four ambulances to supplement EMSA, improve response time
The Oklahoma City Fire Department will soon launch four new ambulance teams to improve response times across the city.
While EMSA holds the sole contract for providing ambulance service inside the city, the fire department received funding last year from the city council to launch its own supplemental service in the most needed areas. This week, the Oklahoma City Council approved the contract with EMSA that allows it to operate its own emergency medical services, essentially making the city a subcontractor to EMSA.
Personnel assigned to staff the ambulances, including paramedics and EMTs, are undergoing training now. The fire department said the new ambulance stations should be up and running by early June, and will join 50 other EMSA ambulance teams responding to calls.
"The overall goal of this is to increase capacity within the system and to make sure that we have that continuity of operation as a city for the transport services," Fire Chief Richard Kelley told the city council on Tuesday.
The new ambulances will be housed at four existing fire stations and are expected to handle 14,000 calls annually:
Station 9: 1415 SW 89
Station 21: 3000 SW 29
Station 22: 333 NW 92
Station 34: 8617 N Council
Why Oklahoma City got into the ambulance business
If EMSA is already responsible for providing ambulance service in Oklahoma City, why is the city launching its own?
Discussion of adding city-operated ambulances to the mix began three years ago, said EMSA chief public affairs officer Adam Paluka. At the time, EMSA was reeling from staffing shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with an increase in demand for services that caused response times to fall. It didn't help that Oklahoma City is geographically massive.
"The response times were not in a great place," Paluka said. "But we made some adjustments and utilized some innovative solutions to get response times (improved), and thankfully we've been able to sustain that success."
One of those adjustments was the creation of EMSA's own in-house EMT school, which was needed because other training programs weren't producing enough graduates.
EMSA recently proclaimed it met its compliance goal of responding to 90% of high-priority calls within 10 minutes and 59 seconds. There is still a desire, however, to improve response times even more — especially in areas of the city seeing high growth. In 2022, EMSA's governing body approved changes that would allow the cities of Oklahoma City and Tulsa to add their own ambulances to the mix.
So far, Oklahoma City is the only EMSA partner to launch a supplemental service.
More: Edmond officially moving away from EMSA for ambulance service
How will OKCFD's ambulance service be different?
For the most part, Oklahoma City residents who call for an ambulance won't notice much of a difference.
Calls will still be dispatched by EMSA. Ambulance crews from the fire department will have the same performance requirements and will follow the same guidelines as EMSA ambulances. Members of EMSACare, the subscription service that covers out-of-pocket ambulance costs, will enjoy the same benefits if a fire department ambulance arrives.
"The unit responding just might be an Oklahoma City Fire unit as opposed to an EMSA unit, but it's the exact same quality of care and the exact same clinical deployment," Paluka said.
More: Changes in ambulance service leave rural Edmond residents with service roulette
The major difference, at least to residents, will be in how ambulance services are billed. Instead of an EMSA bill, patients who get an Oklahoma City Fire Department team will be billed by the city.
Oklahoma City will also own its ambulances and will provide all supplies and pharmaceuticals needed to run them. Paramedics and EMTs will be fire department employees.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Fire Department adds four new ambulances to supplement EMSA
