HOUSTON – When you need help in a hurry, most of us know to call 911. But Houston's fire chief said that just because you ask for an ambulance doesn't mean you'll get one.
KPRC Local 2 explains a new response system that some said is putting lives in danger.
In an emergency, every second counts. But veteran firefighters are telling Local 2 Investigates valuable seconds, even minutes are slipping by because of a new Houston Fire Department policy.
"My first concern was for the citizens of Houston," said a veteran Houston firefighter who spoke with us on the condition of anonymity. "It's the fact that you have an ambulance sitting in your station and you have to go out on a run to a medic call with four firefighters ... while that ambulance is sitting there, wasting response time when you get there if that person has to be transported."
He said if there is an ambulance and a fire truck sitting at the station nearest you, and you call 911 asking for the ambulance, dispatchers will send the fire truck instead.
The department's new policy first became public knowledge about two weeks ago when a 4-year-old Kingwood girl died after her mom accidentally backed over her in the driveway. The frantic mom called 911 and asked for an ambulance. What arrived was a fire truck. The toddler's dad, John Woodruff, tried to make sense of it days later.
"Even if the fire truck ... even if that asset saved a minute or something, it was, as I understand it ... they did not know what to do with her," said Woodruff.
"Unfortunately, this was a tragic event," said Houston Fire Chief Terry Garrison.
The Houston Fire Department is investigating the Kingwood case, but Garrison said his new policy is making HFD's response more effective and efficient.
"We had felt like we were sending too many companies to every call," Garrison explained. "We were just sending everybody."
Now, when people call 911 and ask for an ambulance, call-takers at the Houston Emergency Center send a fire truck to first assess the situation.
What most people don't realize is that almost every firefighter in Houston is an emergency medical technician. They can treat minor injuries and offer basic help. What they cannot do is take you to the hospital if you do really need to go to the ER when a fire truck shows up. The firefighter then has to call for the ambulance you originally asked for. And firefighters said many times that ambulance is sitting right at the same fire station they came from.
"Unfortunately, what we've found is that with many citizens if they just ask for an ambulance, they don't know what they need," said Garrison. "So, if somebody asks for an ambulance, we'll respond and we'll help them determine whether they need an ambulance or not."
"The delay of an ambulance getting there and transporting that unit to a hospital is the major concern," said the firefighter who spoke with Local 2.
He said in one case call takers sent a fire truck to man who had fallen in his home. When firefighters arrived they realized the man was 95 years old and needed to get to the hospital. It took 41 minutes from the first call until an ambulance actually arrived.
"I think the administration wants you to believe that EMTs are now arriving on the scene quicker and that first contact is what they're looking at," said the firefighter. "But overall what you should be looking at is from the time of the original call from the patient calling 911 to the time that they are now being transported to the hospital is much longer."
The new policy sounds very similar to a Houston program Local 2 Investigates uncovered in 2009 when emergency calls were transferred to San Antonio where a group of nurses would ask you a series of questions to determine if you actually needed an ambulance. Back then, Houston EMS Director Dr. David Persse said, "It keeps the ambulances in service for true emergencies ... and that's what our 911 emergency taxpayer supported 911 emergency system is for."
KPRC Local 2 discovered the city cancelled the program after our story, calling it inefficient. This latest fire department policy seems to be the new plan to reserve the city's fleet of ambulances, but firefighters worry at what cost.
"There are situations where people say they need an ambulance and, unfortunately, with our 911 system, we get overrun by people that call for ambulances when really they think they're going to get to the front of the emergency room," said Garrison.
Firefighters KPRC Local 2 spoke with said the new policy is most dangerous in outlying areas, like Kingwood and Willowbrook. Since there are fewer ambulances in those areas, if dispatchers wait to send an ambulance until after the fire truck gets on scene, the wait could be up to 20 or 30 minutes.
