4/23/09
Española Hospital paramedics were unable to respond April 16 to an emergency call in Velarde and another in Española, according to a Hospital ambulance call log.
The Hospital’s two ambulance crews were busy with calls in La Villita and a patient transfer from the Hospital to Albuquerque when the calls came in at 10:09 p.m. and 10:17 p.m., the log shows. Paramedics would not discuss the details of the missed calls.
These calls bring to 22, the number of times Hospital paramedics have been delayed or been unable to respond to emergency calls since March 9. That was the date the Hospital cut the number of operating ambulances from three to two.
Hospital Administrator Derrick Yu ordered the cuts as a cost-saving measure. He had predicted that the policy would not cause any emergency response delays.
Hospital paramedics have been told not to speak with the news media, paramedics said.
The Hospital has already met with Rio Arriba County officials about the cut in service; now it may have a date with state officials. The Hospital must appear before the state Public Regulation Commission to justify the cut in paramedic crews, Commission spokesman Paul Carbajal said Tuesday evening.
“Quite simply, Española Hospital (ambulance) service needs to come to the Commission if they’re going to reduce service, and we’ve informed them that they have (reduced service),” he said. “They need to come to the Commission before they begin decreasing service. We communicated that information to them and they haven’t responded.”
Rio Arriba County Manager Lorenzo Valdez told County Commissioners April 14 that he had spoken with Yu to discuss ambulance service.
“They’re close to $300,000 in the hole (for ambulance services),” Valdez said. “They’re facing the same economic crunch as everybody else.”
The Hospital does not share its audits or financial reports with the County or the public, so the Hospital’s budget claims cannot be independently verified.
The County will pay $347,560 for the Hospital’s ambulance service alone this fiscal year, part of $6.25 million in County mill levy tax revenues that will go to the Hospital, according to a County document.