Dispatching for a private ambulance?

I am interested in hearing from departments that dispatch from their comm center for a private ambulance service.

How are you doing it?
Who pays for the equipment in the ambulances?
Does the ambulance company pay a fee?

Thanks,
Ed Maikranz
Abilene, TX

[fire5555]

when you say private

are they under contract from your city to provide ambulance service to the city??

Or just plain private as in pick up and mainly transport, no money back to the city

[dfelix22000us]

Only one town in our mutual aid provides their own ambulance service. All of the others are contracted through the towns and are dispatched from the same center as fire (along with the town that provides their own bus). I don't know all of the details on how it works, but the private ambulance provides their own supplies in some way, shape or form. I believe the drugs come from the hospitals, and I have a feeling they get other supplies there as well. How money is handled between the two I don't know. The private companies are paid a contracted amount from the towns, and I know the company that serves our town can bill the patients for transport- though not everyone can afford the bill.

I know the overall gist of how it works but really don't know the fine details.

[fasteddy64]

when you say private

are they under contract from your city to provide ambulance service to the city??

Or just plain private as in pick up and mainly transport, no money back to the city

They are the only licensed EMS transport company authorized to operate in the city. They are not paid by the city, they operate 100% as a private company with no money from the city. We have another company trying to come in and I am looking at options on how to manage the dispatching if we need to make changes.

Currently the ambulance company maintains their own VHF radio system. The have a rip-and-run printer at their dispatch console that gets our call sheet, they have one of out radios that they monitor and our dispatcher has a ring-down line to their dispatcher.

Ideally I would like to bring them on to our trunked system and let our dispatchers dispatch them directly.

[tree68]

I know of a county that started doing that, and according to hearsay, now regrets the decision.

In general, they just tone the squads - the services still maintain their own comms.

[ACjames]

I know of private services that aren't charged anything unless the comm center also dispatch non emergency calls