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The Emergency Medical Services Division of the Fire Department has announced an increase in revenue for 2006. More than $2,750,000.00 was collected, which is an increase of 5% over the previous year. The increase in income for 2006 could be attributed to better collection and increases in reimbursements. First Deputy Chief James Conrad, who heads the division, also told us that the rates charged for care and Membership Subscriptions would not change for 2007.
Memberships to the ambulance service are available for all residents of the City of Reading and relieves the patient from financial responsibility for the balance of the charge for service not covered by medical insurance.*
The revenue collected in 2006 is still below the budgeted amount for the division and the Fire Chief has vowed to continue to improve EMS financial performance with the goal of self-sufficiency for EMS in Reading while continuing to deliver a quality service for our citizens and visitors.
The division has also announced the purchase of 4 Panasonic Toughbook portable computers for use on the ALS units. The computers will enable the crews to begin to document trip sheets without having to wait to return to station.
The hope is that being able to enter information in the ambulances will help to decrease 'turn around time' that has become a concern since St. Joseph Medical Center moved out of the city to their new facility in Bern Township.
The ToughBooks by Panasonic are being ordered from Med-Media Company of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. When the computers are delivered they will be installed by Radio Maintenance Inc. of Reading. Chief Conrad hopes to see the computers installed in the units and personnel trained sometime in the beginning of May.
Delivery of new LifePak brand Monitors are on hold from Physio Control a division of Medtronic of Redmond, Washington.
In January 2007, the company announced the voluntary suspension of product delivery while they work with the FDA to iron out issues relating to one of their products. According to their web site, Medtronics hopes to begin distributing their products again later this year.
The state of the art Monitors deliver emergency care to victims of cardiac arrest and life threatening arrhythmias. The LifePak-12 units, are the latest generation of cardiac monitor/defibrillators that provide multiple views of the heart known as 12-lead ECG. This allows rapid diagnosis of patients experiencing heart attacks and can speed treatment time based on the findings of these latest generation units. The units are lightweight and also are bluetooth technology capable for sending the 12 lead output directly to the hospital.
The city purchased four of the new units to replace the older monitors in the units. Last year, four new ambulances were purchased, see New Ambulances. The EMS Division ran more than 13,000 emergency and transport calls in 2006, see Run Stats.
*See ems page for membership and rate information