SAN DIEGO (KGTV) —The city’s new ambulance provider Falck faced questioning about its retention rates and service—again—during the first public safety meeting of the year on Wednesday.
Team 10 first reported in December that Falck faced roughly $900,000 in fines for the quarter from July through September due to poor response times. During a previous interview, San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief Colin Stowell said he wanted the fire department to take charge of ambulance services.
“The fire department is going to be overseeing the system and potentially take over as the provider, which will allow us to monitor the revenue [and] to do the billing collections on that side,” Stowell said in December. “We will be in control of how many hours are need in the streets.”
Another option includes subcontracting with another ambulance provider to supplement Falck’s hours, according to the chief.
Stowell said he planned to present amendments to the city’s contract with Falck in January, but that was delayed until next month.
Besides questions regarding Falck’s contract with the city, Falck employees confirmed their contract with the private ambulance company expired at the end of December. Falck and the union are currently in negotiations.
Councilmember Marni Von Wilpert, who now chairs the committee, said she wants Falck to succeed but remains concerned about current staffing levels and failures in the contract.
“We can’t continue to operate this way. It’s been over a year now. We’ve never gotten the full unit hours or staffing levels that we need. We have patients being carried to hospitals on fire trucks, and that is not acceptable,” Von Wilpert said.
Jeff Behm, Falck’s managing director, spoke about the “unprecedented” $50,000 signing bonus to attract new paramedics. During the meeting, he said since the bonus was announced late last year, 15 paramedics have been hired and nine more are being brought in. 20 have left, according to Behm.
A spokesperson later told Team 10 those numbers were incorrect.
He said 22 paramedics have been added since the bonus, with nine starting in February. Only seven were lost since the bonus announcement.
It is not clear why the numbers were not rectified before the meeting began.
Councilmember Raul Campillo questioned the company’s retention methods.
“I believe that if you had simply just given your co-workers a raise instead of having the headline $50,000 sign-on bonus, you would have seen more workers come on,” he said.
Behm said they were continuing with “innovative and evolutionary” ways to improve the system.
“It's a whole amendment process,” he told Team 10 after the meeting. “We're working very closely… with the fire department. The biggest thing is that it's best for all San Diegans.”
The next meeting is in February.
