Tonight on Stormland-TV, Investikeneke Angela is doing a story about the games PP has been playing since they implemented their ‘secret’ pilot program to help correct level zeros.
Teasers are HERE & HERE. UPDATE: Another story
The biggest concern is that PP has created fake mutual aid ambulances so that they still get the call and avoid zero level;
We’ve uncovered some of those late calls when no ambulance was available. But dispatchers no longer call it a Level Zero. Instead, it sounds something like this:
“Priority one for 980. Be advised that 980 is still on the call, 962 is at Sanford and will be clearing shortly to be enroute.”So while 980 sounds like an ambulance, it’s not, causing some to question is there is a “phantom ambulance” in Sioux Falls.
I was first told about this about a month ago (apparently the person who tipped me off went to Angela to). As I was asking questions about this and listening to different radio traffic, from talking to other ambulance service EMTs and providers in the region, one word kept coming up while describing PP’s new pilot program, “Corrupt”. And it wasn’t only competition that was saying this, one of their employees described the operations of PP as ‘F*cked’.
So how does this work if this is what they are truly doing?
It’s actually quite simple. In order to avoid a ‘level zero’ as an ambulance provider you have to make sure you have mutual aid in route to an emergency scene if all your ambulances are busy. Since PP has the contract with the city to provide exclusive ambulance service in Sioux Falls, they must call in mutual aid if all of their ambulances are busy. And they are busy quite often, making transports between SF hospitals, which is guaranteed revenue and at a lower risk. So when this happens, the accusation is that instead of calling in actual mutual aid (Like Med Star) they call a phantom service called a ‘980 to 989’. 911 dispatch of course are saying it is NOT a fake ambulance but another name for a Level Zero – Well isn’t that comforting. So while this FAKE level zero is happening, PP can finish their transport without getting called out on a ‘level zero’ and once the transport is finished, they call off the 980 and respond to the call, restarting the clock all over again. By this time, it could be over 45 minutes before the ambulance arrives. Rumor has it that in some cases people waited so long, they just had a family member drive them to the hospital, others died waiting.
While all of this sounds pretty crazy, it’s not to hard to pull off. Our health director, Jill Franken and REMSA have been tight lipped about this secret pilot program, so we have NO idea WHAT they are doing to fix the level zero calls, they refused to talk to KELO.
It will be interesting to see what Angela has uncovered, but the evidence I have been shown isn’t flattering.
l3wis