Council: EMS Doesn’t Work For Private Facilities

Photo courtesy Jackson EMS

  JACKSON – Two township ordinances were approved recently due to an issue of for-profit nursing homes and assisted living facilities calling Jackson EMS on a regular basis for non-emergency calls. Transports for blood work and other routine matters should be taken care of by private ambulance services, the Township Council said.

  Such calls were compromising the township’s EMS because they did not want to pay for the ambulances that the facilities should have to offer their residents, said Council Vice President Martin Flemming.

  The first ordinance, 27-21 notes its purpose as being to “encourage persons or entities in Jackson to use the township’s EMS when necessary but to avoid dispatching EMS for non-emergency medical response or transportation.”

  A warning would be issued to a business operator. They might also be charged depending on the frequency of dispatches made for non-emergency medical services. The first non-emergency response would result in a warning while the second would result in a $250 fine. The third violation would result in $500 fine while a fourth would result in a $750 fine.

  Any EMS calls that were deemed reasonably life-threatening or an emergency at the time, but were later determined to be non-emergencies, would not be counted as ordinance violations.

  The ordinance doesn’t apply to patient care facilities which are addressed in the second ordinance, 28-21. That ordinance states that its purpose is to “preserve and enhance the availability of first aid squad services for legitimate medical emergency situations in Jackson by regulating the use of EMS units in certain non-emergency situations.”

  State licensed nursing homes, rest homes, health maintenance organizations, assisted living facilities, healthcare facilities providing inpatient services each meet the definition of patient care facilities. Other licensed or unlicensed medical providers with the capacity to treat 10 or more outpatients at the same time would also meet that definition.

  Such facilities in the township are required to own, lease or rent or have available by contract, enough appropriately staffed private ambulance services so that their patients can receive proper treatment and transportation for non-emergency medical care at all times.

  Those who violate this ordinance would face a dispatch fee of $750 by the township.

  Flemming was commended by his fellow council members for bringing this situation to light and for addressing it with the two ordinances that were unanimously approved.