VISTA — The City Council approved spending $2.7 million to strengthen the city’s ambulance fleet with new vehicles and employees during its April 25 meeting.
The council approved $363,455 to replace an older ambulance and $2.4 million to purchase two new Basic Life Support ambulances and hire 12 workers at the Vista Fire Department to staff the emergency response units.
The city expects to recoup at least $1.2 million of the cost over the next year, or several years, from transport revenues.
Interim Fire Chief Roy Palmer said the department’s calls for service have increased by 5% over three of the past four years, and the trend is expected to continue. However, the department’s ambulances are well above the national standard for Unit Hour Utilization, the percentage of time each fully-equipped and staffed EMS unit spends responding to calls or providing care.
In the first three months of 2023, only one ambulance operated below 25% during February.
“If we add two more units, we will immediately drop below 25% and projecting out to 2025, we will below 25%,” Palmer said.
Palmer also presented a heat map of Vista’s emergency response coverage, with several areas in the city well above the 25% standard. But the interim chief said the new ambulances and staff would impact service calls.
The BLS ambulances will be staffed with emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and other first responders to continue providing patients with Advanced Life Support care. Currently, the city has four ALS ambulances at four of the city’s fire stations.
While the council supported the new equipment and staff, Councilmember Corinna Contreras and Councilmember Katie Melendez questioned the new division chief and human resources officer about not providing timely updates on equipment and staffing to avoid potential budgeting roadblocks if city revenues should happen to enter a downturn.
“It’s so frustrating … then it’s like we need 12 more personnel,” Contreras said. “We need another captain, another division chief. I hope this never happens again … rather than this is an emergency and we need this right now.”
Contreras and Melendez also praised the volunteer effort by some in the department to conduct the study paid for by the International Association of Firefighters but said administrative staff in the department should take on these types of responsibilities in the future.
Battalion Chief Bret Davidson said the division chief and human resources officer would streamline the department and offload work currently being done by training officers and others. In addition, the division chief will focus on administrative work, recruitment, retention and quality assurance to mitigate risk to the department and city, among other responsibilities, Davidson said.
