Fullerton is expected to roll out its own ambulances next spring after city officials decided to take over emergency medical response.
On Tuesday, Fullerton officials voted 4-1 to switch from contracted ambulance services to an in-house program they say will save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in a city where staff last year projected a $20 million deficit in 2027.
[Read: How Can Fullerton Prevent a Projected $20 Million Spending Deficit in Three Years?]
They also voted to spend up to $1,652,000 on new ambulances and up to roughly $535,000 on gurneys and other equipment for the program.
“I think this opportunity for us to bring this in house gives us consistency and accountability amongst our people,” said Mayor Fred Jung at Tuesday’s meeting.
Councilman Nick Dunlap was the dissenting vote, arguing that more information was needed to verify the savings the new program would bring to the city.
“I would like to see a little bit more of the workup behind the financials. I’d like to see if we could get a presentation that would show us the financial model, to show us what those savings are,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“I think we could have it properly vetted before it comes to council.”
Fullerton Fire Chief Adam Loeser said that for the past two and a half years they’ve been trying to rebuild the fire department by filling vacancies and are looking to improve response times after a contracted ambulance was taken out of service in 2018.
“We have one of the busiest fire engines at our station #1 in the county, where we are teetering on the point of response times being ineffective,” Loeser said at Tuesday’s meeting.
He also defended the projected savings he and other staff presented at the meeting – totalling an estimated $3.2 million in the first five years .
“I wouldn’t have brought it if I didn’t think it would have been successful, and the vetting out that happened with all of our numbers, I am extremely confident in the numbers,” Loeser said.
“This program is one of those avenues that we’re looking to to help offset those costs to further rebuild the fire department.”
The new program comes after a report by consultants found firefighters with Orange County Fire Authority are improving their response times and that roughly 75% of their 911 calls are for medical emergencies, which fire trucks are sent to.
[Read: Just How Fast Are OC Fire Authority’s First Responders?]
An Orange County Grand Jury report a few years ago raised questions over the need to send fire trucks to medical emergencies.
Fullerton’s switch also comes years after Placentia officials voted to leave the county’s fire authority in 2019 and formed their own fire department and place paramedics on contracted ambulances so they can respond directly to medical emergencies – a move that helped them shave multiple minutes off their response times, according to city reports.
Some residents like Joshua Ferguson also raised concerns that the proposal was not properly vetted and studied.
“If we really care about fiscal responsibility, about service models, about doing the right thing, this should be taken apart with a fine tooth comb,” Ferguson said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Resident Oscar Valadez said he supports bringing ambulance services in-house, but the city should post metrics to measure the success of the program based on response times and cost savings as it is implemented.
“We can’t tolerate any type of failure,” he said.
Making the Switch
Currently, Fullerton officials contract with Falck Mobile Health Corp. – formerly known as Care Ambulance – for three 24-hour ambulances and one 12-hour ambulance that deploy from three different fire stations across the city.
Under the In-house program, the city would have 18 full-time ambulance operators and 6 part-time ambulance operators serving a two year term to encourage them to move into firefighter roles. City officials would also buy seven ambulances, according to Loeser.
City staff say bringing the services in internally will increasingly save the city money year after year, reduce response times, allow for direct oversight of staff, training and patient care as well as recruit firefighters.
At the same time, they admit it will be a challenge to buy ambulances due supply chain disruptions and an increase in administrative work.
City staff said they’ll also have to grapple with the competitive labor market for EMTs in Southern California.
According to a city staff report, the city is paying roughly $2.75 million for the contracted ambulance services this year and is expected to pay more than $2.9 million in 2026 when the hourly rate for service goes up by $5 to $95 per ambulance.
City staff estimate that a city operated ambulance program would cost roughly $2.5 million in 2026 if it started on Jan. 1 and save the city more than $7.3 million in the first decade, according to the same report.
Under the in-house program, it would cost roughly $82 an hour next year to run one ambulance.
The current contract with Falck was expected to end on Dec. 31, 2026. Now, officials are expected to end the contract early to make the transition.
In-house ambulance services are expected to launch in April next year.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.