Too Many NON-EMERGENCY calls

[James_Orenthal]

I run with a volunteer rescue squad that handles approx 900 calls a year. Approximately 80-90% of these calls would not have required an ambulance and could have been handled by PV. This becomes more of an issue when bad weather comes along and we have to but our lives and vehicles on the line to give someone a "taxi ride" to the hospital. Does anyone have any policies or ideas to cut down on these type of calls???

[502]

It depends on if your dept. can bill for services or not, if you can any transport is potential revenue, if you don't maybe if available these calls could be referred to a local paid service that does non emergent transports,also if you are tax based you probably have an obligation to the community, the flipside is that if you do not have a paid service available the only way to dertimine a true emergency is by responding to these calls, potentially what may come in as a B.S. call could really be a serious emergency. Don't open yourself up to a lawsuit until you find an acceptable alternative you'll have to eat these calls.