Casey,

This question is nearly impossible to answer.  There are only a few line items that are solely dedicated to one or the other (listed below).  The remaining 69 line items are mixed with fire, medical and support functions.  We would need to set up separate budget accounts (one for fire, one for medical, and a general one) to get even get close enough to be able to answer this accurately. 

Line Item	Description	2008 Amount
40-24	FF Clothes	$45,000
40-25	FF Hose	$9,000
42-04	Medical Equipment < $5,000	$10,800
42-24	Breathing Apparatus	$45,828
42-35	CPR Program Supplies	$10,000
44-01	Medical	$84,500

I can tell you that as far as salary goes, the EMT-I designation adds $1.16 per hour on average and the MICT designation adds $2.55 per hour on average on top of the basic firefighter pay category (e.g. a Fire Engineer who is an EMT-I earns on average $1.16 per hour more than the basic Fire Engineer).

I can also tell you that 76% of our calls in 2006 were medical calls (6,810 out of 8,964).  If you multiple the 2006 budget ($11,997,412) by 76%, you get $9,118,033.  However, I’m not sure how useful this will be, as some fire equipment and supplies may cost more than medical equipment and supplies.  Also, personnel are more likely to increase costs because it takes two people to run a medic unit and four to run a fire truck.  Additionally, although call backs (overtime) to staff medic units are more frequent, fire incidents may require more staffing at one time (e.g. in one month, we may need to call back 2 people to staff a medic truck twice but one large-scale fire incident may require us to call back 8 people).

Another alternative is to take our total budget and divide it by the number of calls we get per year.  This would average $1,338.40 per call, which would calculate out to $9,114,504 for medical calls.  Again, I’m not sure how accurately this indicates the true cost of providing medical services.

As far as how often fire apparatus respond to medical calls, it usually is not that black and white.  Often, when fire apparatus respond, it is only until a medic unit can get there.  For vehicle accidents, both a medic unit and fire apparatus nearly always respond.  And medic units respond to what are classified as fire calls.  In 2006, medic units responded to fire incidents 591 times while fire apparatus responded to medical calls 2,847 times.  This will exceed the actual number of calls per year because of multiple-unit response.  I’ve attached a spreadsheet based on response per unit. 

I responded in e-mail so I could send you the figures, but please call me if you have questions or need more detail.

Alicia

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From: Casey Liebst
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 1:29 PM
To: Alicia Holliday
Subject: question about ambulance service

Alicia,

We are gather information about City/County funding relationships and one of the questions that came up is what percent of fire medical department resources are devoted to the medical response side vs. fire.  This would include operating costs as well as staff time, equipment usage, etc.  For instance, how often fire apparatus is used to respond to a medical call.  The goal is to try to answer if our current funding arrangement accurately reflects what it actually happening. 

We are meeting on Thursday which I know is short notice but I thought I would see if you have any thoughts on how to approach answering that question. 

Could you call me so we could discuss.

Thanks,
Casey 

Casey Liebst

Budget Manager

City of Lawrence, Kansas

785-832-3409