WPFD to Charge for Ambulance Calls
The West Peoria Fire Department will begin charging for ambulance calls beginning October 1, pending completion of billing procedures. A combination of factors—including rising costs of medical equipment, supplies, and operating costs—have led to this decision made by the Fire Protection District Board of Trustees.
"In order to maintain the high quality of service to West Peorians, we unfortunately found it necessary to begin charging for ambulance calls," states Fire Chief Robert Stecher. "The ambulance service has dramatically changed over the last thirty plus years. There have been many life-saving medical and technological advances and we've been able to keep pace, but equipping and maintaining an ambulance today is far more costly."
Another change is that each volunteer will be paid a nominal amount per call. This is a deviation from past practices but has been necessitated by the changing dynamics in EMS services locally.
"We are one of the last area departments to offer a free ambulance service," Stecher said. "We found ourselves training emergency medical technicians only to lose them to area ambulance services and other departments that pay their crews. We want to continue to provide the high quality of service at the most affordable means we can, but we cannot continue to do so if we are a training ground for paid services. We anticipate the charges to be less than what Advanced Medical Transport charges," Stecher stated, "and we are normally much quicker in our response because the ambulance is right here rather than summoning an outside agency to respond to our call."
The free ambulance service was added to the fire department in 1975 to be able to respond quickly to West Peoria residents in emergency situations. Until the change to a fee structure, the ambulance has been funded through tax dollars, memorials, and donations as well as fundraisers. Switching to a user-fee structure will free up a portion of the other funding sources to address the fire department's budgetary needs as well as the ambulance service expenses. For more information, please feel free to contact Chief Robert Stecher at the West Peoria Fire Department's non-emergency number: 674-6615.