Ambulance Firm Adds Paramedics
The private ambulance company serving Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru on Monday added paramedics to its local ambulance staff, bringing the level of ambulance service in the Santa Clara River Valley up to the rest of Ventura County.
The Thousand Oaks-based Pruner Health Services Inc. will from now on staff its two ambulances stationed in Santa Paula and Fillmore with a paramedic and an emergency medical technician, company officials said.
County and local civic leaders, who have been lobbying for at least three years for paramedic-staffed ambulances in the area, welcomed the announcement.
The change could save lives, said Pat Askren, chief of the Fillmore Volunteer Fire Department.
Unlike emergency medical technicians, paramedics are able to dispense medication and deliver fluids and certain drugs to patients intravenously.
For some patients with severe breathing problems or congestive heart failure, it can be critical that medication is administered before they get to a hospital, Askren said.
It takes 20 minutes for an ambulance to carry a patient from Fillmore to the nearest hospital, Santa Paula Memorial, and 45 minutes from Lake Piru, he said.
The Pruner ambulances stationed in Santa Paula and Fillmore serve about 40,000 to 50,000 residents in a 250-square-mile area that extends up to the northeast corner of the county.
In addition to helping residents, putting paramedics on local ambulances will benefit commuters along California 126, Askren said.
“Highway 126 running through Fillmore has 30,000 cars a day traveling down it,” he said. “Now when you drive down 126, you can feel comfortable you’re going to get the same level of service out there that you do throughout Ventura County.”
The Santa Paula and Fillmore locations are the last of Pruner’s 10 ambulance stations in the county to get paramedics on staff.
The other two private companies serving the county, Gold Coast Ambulance and Ojai Ambulance, already have paramedics on staff at their stations.
Dave Chase, the county’s medical director for emergency medical services, said that adding paramedics to the ambulances is expected to save lives.
But, he said, “somebody foots the bill. It’s not free.”
Patients in the Santa Clara River Valley pay a base rate of $350 to $400 for an ambulance trip to the hospital.
If they are treated by ambulance paramedics, they will pay an additional $250 to $300, said Steve Murphy, Pruner’s chief administrative officer.
Pruner estimates that about 350 people each year, or 22% of the 1,600 patients who use the two ambulances in the area, will require paramedic treatment.
But while referring to a proposal to train county firefighters as paramedics, Murphy defended the additional costs of ambulance paramedic service.
At least the cost is paid by those who use it rather than taxpayers, he said.
Supervisor Maggie Kildee, whose district includes the Santa Clara River Valley, said the ambulance paramedic program makes the best sense economically.
“I think this is the best thing we can do medically and the most cost-effective way of providing emergency medical services,” she said.
Murphy said Pruner expects only to break even financially on its Santa Paula and Fillmore ambulance stations after paying paramedics’ higher salaries.
The stations in the Santa Clara River Valley are the least busy of the company’s locations, he said.
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