Mayor floats idea to privatize EMS

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - If you have a medical emergency in the city of Grand Rapids -- anything from a heart attack to a broken toe -- a fire department crew responds and administers critical care in the first minutes. A few minutes after that, a private ambulance with paramedics and more advanced equipment arrives.

Mayor George Heartwell wants to cut out the fire department in that equation.

He's outlined a number of ideas to reinvent city government, and is well aware of the political risks in this idea. But, he said, the times dictate the need to take that risk.

"This is a wacky, out of control environment where we need to do major things to bring it back into line," he told 24 Hour News 8.

Though he hasn't figured out what the city might exactly save through privatization, the math is simple.

The fire department's budget is around $25 million per year. EMS calls make up 70% of their call volume.

"Private industry sometimes can do it cheaper," said Joe Dubay of the Grand Rapids Firefighter's Union. "I would dispute they can do it better."

A 2002 study by the Midland-based Mackinaw Center suggests private EMS crews work more cheaply than government paid medics. Contracts with private providers can include performance incentives.

The union maintains the numbers don't tell the whole story. Since the bottom line for a private company is profit, union leaders wonder what happens if a contract with the city is no longer profitable.

And once a program like the government-provided EMS is dismantled, it's more expensive to put back together.

As for the savings on staffing, Dubay points out the city will still have fires and they'll still need 10 or so strategically placed firehouses to get crews to those fires as quickly as possible.

"If you're going to have the staffing, you might as well get the best bang for your buck," Dubay said, "and also have us doing EMS."

Heartwell said that, for now, privatizing EMS and other services are just ideas.

"In any normal environment, a politician wouldn't even talk about these things. You'd just push them back. You don't talk about them. This is not a normal environment we're in."