AMT Contract--2006

November 17, 2006:

AMT Contract

The Journal Star reported two days ago that the Peoria City Council voted 9-2 to keep Advanced Medical Transport (AMT) as the only provider of ambulance transport in the city of Peoria. AMT has a no-compete contract for the next 20 years and, if I understood the article correctly, the policy will ensure that AMT has the exclusive contract for the next 10 years.

Millions of dollars are made each year by AMT. Money is made by transportation of the sick and injured pre-hospital patient. If AMT had competition for transport by other private ambulance services or by the Peoria Fire Department (PFD), their revenue would be much less. Retaining their ability to be the only transporting agency in Peoria was very important to AMT and the three Peoria hospitals, which support AMT. The PFD had very little chance to get into the transport business whether they wanted to or not with the political and business climate being as it is in Peoria.

Arguments for AMT being the transport agency include taxes won’t have to be raised and the city budget will be better off because the PFD won’t be in the ambulance business. What is not mentioned is that the three Peoria hospitals paid the 2 million dollar fine to the federal government when AMT was found guilty of Medicare fraud in 2000. Each hospital paid $750,000 dollars to help out. I wonder what that did to hospital medical charges in Peoria. I doubt it lowered the high charges for local people and Caterpillar Inc. for hospital care. And did AMT care much what their fraudulent behavior was doing to the taxpayer when they were excessively billing the government for their services?

But policy is policy and the Peoria City Council believes that this is the way to go for Peoria for the next 20 years. Many other cities in Illinois, including East Peoria, West Peoria, Morton, and Washington, do not think this is the way to go and stress public services to a greater degree. Their ambulance services all function at a higher level than the PFD and all transport their patients.

My hope is that the PFD will be allowed to increase their level of care for Peorians who call 911. They have been rendered totally impotent as a potential transport agency, which is where the money is in this business. However, I hope the PFD will be able to advance from Basic to Intermediate or Advanced Life Support to improve the care of people in medical emergencies.

Now that the PFD is potentially out of the picture for the next generation, the two OSF physicians that have controlled EMS in Peoria for the majority of the last 15 years, Rick Miller and George Hevesy, will hopefully allow the Peoria Fire Department to upgrade their services. (Neither of them is the Project Medical Director now, but they control the decisions of the acting Project Medical Director.) Another improvement would be for Drs. Hevesy and Miller to allow PFD paramedics to use their paramedic skills at the scene to provide advanced life support and not just basic life support as they do now. The doctors don’t need to fear AMT losing business or money with the new Council policy. They both have worked hard for years successfully keeping AMT the only paramedic transport agency in Peoria.

An individual fire department has a certain status with regard to the level of care they give. But with approval by the local doctors in charge and the Illinois Department of Public Health, if a firefighter is present who has greater emergency medical skills, he or she can use them at the scene. Springfield Fire Department works this way. There is no reason that this shouldn’t work in Peoria either. In other words, the PFD firefighter who is also a paramedic should be able to use his/her skills as a paramedic even if the PFD is only designated as Basic. But the direction has to be from the local medical leadership, like Miller and Hevesy. And when they are on the OSF and AMT payroll, their direction can be biased. I wonder if either one of them ever asked the PFD (and thus the taxpayer) for a salary to upgrade the service of the PFD?

The citizenry has been bluffed for many years with terms such as first responder, emergency medical technicians, BLS-D, Intermediate, Advanced, paramedics, etc. Who could possibly figure this out? Who would even want to unless you are in the “business”?

But Peorians shouldn’t be bluffed when Uncle Henry collapses into the turkey at the Thanksgiving meal. They need to start CPR immediately and call 911. They should be aware that the PFD, who usually arrives quicker than AMT, cannot give Uncle Henry Intermediate or Advanced Life Support even though a Peoria fireman may be in their living room with advanced skills. In the Peoria EMS system he is not allowed to use his skills. That is a shame for Uncle Henry and should be quite embarrassing for Peoria.
---------------------------

My Comments in 2021:

In 2006 I was making the argument above that a PFD Engine that is Basic should be able to provide Paramedic care if there was a licensed Paramedic working on the engine.

In 2018, Bill 1952 was signed into law by Governor Rauner in Illinois which allowed Paramedics in Peoria (or anywhere in Illinois) to be able to function as Paramedics at the scene even on a Basic Fire Department Engine. Every representative in the state of Illinois voted "yes" except for Ryan Spain of Peoria who voted "present". Ryan works for OSF and has family members on the Board of AMT.