Stung by rising pension costs and the inability to renegotiate a contract that was signed eight years ago, the Woodside fire district has said it may have to give up operating its own ambulance that serves Woodside, Portola Valley, Ladera and nearby areas.
If the district decides to stop providing the service — a decision that could be made later this month at a district board meeting — emergency service would not end. But fire officials say that response times could suffer, meaning some ambulance requests would not be met as quickly as they are now.
But regardless of whether response times may be slower, the Woodside district says it can no longer afford to subsidize the ambulance to the tune of $500,000 or more a year. The shortfall is a result of a contract the district negotiated eight years ago, when costs were lower and sentiment high for the area to operate its own ambulance. The current payment of only $177,000 to the fire district for providing the service is particularly upsetting, since its ambulance brings in an estimated $1 million a year in fees charged to patients.
A similar agreement in Menlo Park fell apart only a few years into the contract, for the same reason. Besides Woodside, Pacifica and Half Moon Bay are the only other fire departments in the county that currently operate their own ambulances, and they, too, are struggling to keep up with mounting costs.
Until Woodside officially calls it quits, it is difficult to say what impact a cutback might have on local emergency calls. All area fire departments now have paramedics as “first responders” aboard fire engines, who answer most calls in under seven minutes. If an ambulance is needed, in urban areas it is contracted to arrive within 13 minutes at least 90 percent of the time. For the suburbs, the wait is 20 minutes, and 30 minutes in rural areas. Fines are imposed if the response times are not met.
American Medical Response (AMR) is under contract until 2009 to provide ambulance service throughout San Mateo County. Woodside fire operates through a subcontract with AMR. If the Woodside ambulance is taken out of service, AMR will simply answer local calls with other units, which could be nearby or a considerable distance away.
Some officials have guessed that the number of target response times met could drop by a few percentage points, although there is no certainty of that prediction.
If service were to slow, it would be worrisome for residents of the Woodside district. But given the way ambulances are dispatched, there is at least some possibility that service will be just as quick.
In a perfect world, small districts like Woodside and Menlo Park would operate their own ambulances, which might even break even. But in order to serve the entire county, a decision was made years ago to contract with AMR. At the time of the last contract talks, there were heated discussion and negotiations, resulting in departments like Menlo Park and Woodside being allowed to mount their own service.
The final deal worked for a time in Woodside, but it is clear now that there simply is not enough revenue to support independent ambulance units alongside a county-wide service from AMR. Woodside did its best to serve its residents, but in today’s era of rising costs and lower reimbursements, that is no longer possible.
