Critics question costs of volunteer rescue-squad system

VIRGINIA BEACH -- City officials frequently tout the millions of dollars the 11 volunteer ambulance squads save city taxpayers.

 Why have a paid ambulance service when 750 willing volunteers handle emergency medical calls day and night? city officials ask.

 But scores of people have questioned how a city of 450,000 residents can continue to rely on volunteers to provide emergency medical services. Those critics, including residents, city firefighters and emergency service workers in other cities, have made three major points.
 
 

 In addition, the city gave the Virginia Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad at the Oceanfront half a million dollars for site preparation for a new building in 1995, plus a $1.25-million interest-free loan to build it.
 
 

 While the firefighters' union does not advocate moving to a paid system, some firefighters claim that for $2 million to $3 million a year, the city can hire 50 to 60 paramedics and have 10 advanced life support ambulances staffed around the clock.

 ``We don't want to put (the volunteers) out of business,'' said firefighters' union member John Anderson, also a paramedic.

 And if the city charged for ambulance service, it could raise $5 million, assuming a 75 percent collection rate.

 Officials with the city Department of Emergency Medical Services dispute the firefighters' claims on both staffing and collections.

 The city could never collect $5 million, according to Bruce Edwards, chief of the department. Norfolk, which bills for ambulance service, collects only about 42 percent of what is owed. And the rate has been as low as 19 percent. Chesapeake, however, had a 73 percent collection rate in 1997.

 At best, Edwards said the city could collect $1.6 million from roughly 60 percent of its customers. The volunteers already get $1.4 million in donations.

 ``This, together with the policy of not sending bills, is extremely popular with the general public, as well as our visitors,'' Edwards said in a December letter to the city manager.

 And to meet minimum staffing requirements, 90 paramedics would have to be hired at a cost of $4.5 million to $6 million, said Ed Brazle, a paid staffer with the city EMS department.

 Brazle said the service provided by volunteers riding ambulances equals $8 million in labor costs.
 
 

At times, there were no volunteers to staff certain rescue squads, creating delays because squads farther away had to cover those gaps. ``There's a socioeconomic disparity when it comes to service delivery in this system,'' said Chase N. Sargent, a member of the firefighters' union.

 He cites the high-income families and resort hotels at the Oceanfront that pump thousands of dollars in donations to the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad, the city's largest and richest ambulance squad.

 But in Blackwater and Creeds, there are fewer people who make less money on average and contribute less to the two squads. ``Those people don't get the same level of service. It's a real struggle just to buy an ambulance,'' Sargent said.

 IRS tax returns bear that out.

 The Creeds Rescue Squad had $14,800 in revenue and $46,600 in the bank in 1998, the last year figures were available. That same year, the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad had $400,000 in revenue and $1.1 million in the bank.

 In addition, the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad is the only city rescue squad to benefit from the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad Foundation Inc., a nonprofit philanthropic group set up more than a decade ago by a local businessman.

 In 1998, the foundation donated $100,000 to the Oceanfront rescue squad.

 The Virginia Beach squad also borrowed $420,000 in a no-interest loan from the city to buy a new crash truck, a vehicle used to respond to vehicle extrications and disasters. Meanwhile, Creeds is relying on a $58,736 state grant to replace a 25-year-old ambulance.

 The city has provided loans to other rescue squads, but not on the scale of what the Oceanfront squad has received.