Peoria Fire Attempts to Advance

On December 8, 2002, Catharine Schaidle wrote a very good article in the Peoria Journal Star---“City Explores Giving Fire Department More Power.”

“The city of Peoria wants to upgrade its fire department from offering basic life support services as it does now to becoming an intermediate service that can also administer medication in emergency situations.”

My comments: There are 3 levels of prehospital care: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced.  Advanced is the same thing as Paramedic care. The PFD still is just basic which is the lowest level. Up until just several years ago, the PFD couldn’t even give an aspirin at the scene of a heart attack when aspirin is most useful when given early and can decrease mortality up to 40%. The project medical director was Dr. George Hevesy for most of the 90’s and he was on AMT’s payroll as well as OSF’s. AMT is the only paramedic provider in Peoria even though the PFD has firefighters who are paramedics and intermediates. (More on this later. You won’t believe how this played out this summer (2005).

The article says that most ambulance services are certified to provide advanced life support services (paramedic). However…"for years AMT has balked at the fire department entering this arena". Andrew Rand, director of AMT, stated that AMT is willing to help the fire department advance to the Intermediate level, but it (AMT) does not want the department to transport patients. Rand went on to say, “They can provide more comprehensive care than they do now (in 2002)”.

My comments: Why would Mr. Rand be stating this? He did not want to lose the transport business to the PFD. Where was Dr. Hevesy in this? He was being paid by AMT. So as it turned out because AMT did not get the 10-year contract that they wanted several weeks later, the PFD is still at basic life support and cannot transport and cannot give life-sustaining drugs during a cardiac arrest in 2005. I would like to see Dr. Hevesy’s written directives that the PFD should increase its level of services for the people of Peoria. Unfortunately, those directives do not exist. 

The Journal Star continued: “Proponents of letting the fire department transport patients argue that the fire department should be in the ambulance business because it is usually first on the scene of an emergency and provides basic life support. They argue that two or three minutes can make a difference in saving a life. In addition to transporting patients, proponents want the firefighter to be able to administer the necessary drugs and bill the patient for the service.”

My comments: Medical studies have shown that advanced life support definitely helps with chest pain patients and patients who are short of breath. The PFD gets thousands of these 911 calls per year and can only give basic life support with very basic medications. This seems like a travesty to me but most people just simply don’t understand this and when they see the PFD truck with RESCUE painted on the side, they believe it. Frequently firefighters do RESCUE people, but not with the advanced life support drugs they should be able to carry and use. 

Dr. Rick Miller is now the current Project Medical Director (and former director of the OSF ED) and the PFD is not advancing its care rapidly under his guidance either. Dr. Hevesy is now the director of the OSF ED.  I have spoken to many people involved in emergency medical systems in the state of Illinois, and they know how this "plays in Peoria". A fire chief of a very large city in Illinois told me “you have a very unfortunate situation at OSF…(regarding prehospital care and its directors).

The Journal Star article continued: “Rand disputes that the fire department is usually the first responder.”

“That is absolutely false,” Rand said.

My comments: Rand was proven wrong two years later by the Matrix study done in 2004 which showed that the PFD arrived approximately 2 minutes quicker to the scene involving life-threatening situations.

Coucilman Ardis was quoted in the JS article,”If we want to have a highly trained fire and medical department in the city , there is nothing that AMT can do to prevent us from doing so”. “I don’t think that anyone can make the argument that anybody would not want the best-trained people to be there for them all the time in case of an emergency. Why would you not want that?”

My comments: Councilman Ardis (now Mayor Ardis) was exactly right. Unfortunately, the situation still stays about the same in Peoria in 2005. The EMS system in Peoria is shrouded in conflict of interest. In early 2003, AMT lost the vote for the 10 year contract they wanted, but they continue to monopolizing paramedic industry in Peoria with the help of OSF and the physicians who should be protecting you in a 911 crisis. Most people don’t care until the crisis involves them or their family.

I sent a letter regarding this conflict of interest to OSF leaders including Jim Moore, Sister Judith Ann, Gerry McShane, Joseph Piccione, and Howard Wiles (the compliance officer for OSF Corporate) in May of 2002 (approximately seven months before the JS article above). I received no response from anyone of the above. (Joe Piccione, the OSF corporate ethicist told me in the fall of 2001 that I was mandated to report conflict of interest, but when I did, no one responded.)

OSF is the main supporter of AMT and the base station for all emergency response services in Central Illinois. I picketed OSF with a sign stating that OSF and AMT had a monopoly of paramedic services during the summer of 2003. Sue Wozniak, CFO at OSF and AMT board member scolded me one afternoon as she was leaving work for picketing the hospital. I asked her what she thought about Hevesy receiving a salary from AMT when he was director of ALL ambulances in Central Illinois. She said it was a good idea that Hevesy “stepped away from this” as he was PROMOTED to director of the Emergency Department at OSF. Incredibly, she stated that Hevesy was still paid by AMT. I couldn’t believe that she would admit this--but she did.  

I kept the Catholic Diocese of Peoria informed regarding this conflict of interest. I believed then and believe now that it needed the "pastoral care" attention of Bishop Jenky and that he should stop this at OSF and its “affiliate” AMT if he wanted to. If OSF wouldn’t provide checks and balances on its business, maybe the Bishop would. I presented this to Monsignor Rohlfs and Patricia Gibson in Rohlf's office in the spring of 2003. I told them that I wanted to petition the OSF Sisters for a Catholic tribunal court. Patricia Gibson and Monsignor had helped me write one petition in December of 2002. However, in 2003, Monsignor Rohlfs told me that if I petitioned the OSF Sisters for ANYTHING, the Diocese would come out against Haitian Hearts in the media.  

So with that threat, I met with Bishop Daniel Jenky the next day in the chancery office. The Bishop was not happy with me regarding my idea to petition for a tribunal court against OSF. He  told me “there will be no tribunal against OSF….it is a $1.6 billion industry, doctor.” True to form, after I filed the petitions for the tribunal court (one being for conflict of interest regarding emergency medical services),the Diocese advised me to go to Rome to solve this problem with Advanced Medical Transport and the Diocese pulled their nominal support for the Haitian Hearts on a front page Journal Star article in July 2003.