Philadelphia Public Safety
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Philadelphia Fire Department Info
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Volunteer and Private Ambulances in Philadelphia
St Joseph Hosp Amb Serv - 155.22 Centennial Amb Assn - 155.28 Urgent Amb - 155.235.265.28.34 50th Ward Amb - 37.94 33.06 49th Ward Amb - 155.22.28 Wissinoming First Aid - 155.205 Wynnebrook Amb - 155.175 Rhawnhurst Bustleton Amb - 155.235 Northeast First Aid - 155.16 Olney Community Amb - 37.98 Circle Amb - 155.28 Metro Amb Serv - 155.28 Burhome First Aid Corps - 155.16.235.265 NE First Aid Corps - 155.16 Wissahickon Community Amb - 155.22
This list was drawn up in ?1998 and included info from a 1982 Police Call book.
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June 2000 info via Email
Yes, the volunteer ambulances are still around. They don't get dispatched through the 9-1-1 center, but are privately contracted out. If you pay up front, then you are a member and your non-emergency runs are FREE; otherwise they will charge you a marginal fee. Stuff like routine runs to rehab centers and to dialysis centers. Typically there is a paid driver and a few paid paramedics/EMTs but the additional helpers and some dispatchers are volunteers. I actually performed dispatch duties as a volunteer for Northeast Ambulance Corp on 155.1600 (KFQ696) back in my younger days. Many are just neighborhood based but they're still alive and operational. We used to be contracted out to major sporting events like baseball games and always had a special parking spot inside Liberty Bell Race Track (horse racing) for their emergency runs. I'm sure these private ambulance companies flourished during the days where the Philadelphia Fire Department couldn't provide adequate service in the EMS division. Today Philadelphia has substantially increased the Medic units throughout the entire city. Although they have almost doubled their numbers, the EMS department is still under-staffed and continuously busy.
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Peter: I work in center city Philadelphia and always see the "Jeff Stat" ambulance units. This outfit is part of the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital transport team responsible for interfacility transport of BLS and ALS trauma patients. TJUH is one of the bigger trauma centers here in Philadelphia. Jeff Stat units will go as far north as half way to NYC and south to the state of Delaware. East to Atlantic City NJ and west to Harrisburg PA. This is approximately a 2 hour drive to the outer areas.
On a different note, many private outfits are being taken over by AMR. This big giant, in the patient transport business, is taking over many outfits every day. Seem like they'll be the only game in town shortly.
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Year 2000
Philly dispatcher fired and criminally charged for forwarding an EMS call to a private ambulance company. The patient died.
?Dec 2000 - another dispatcher in trouble because a patient died after a botched dispatch. alt.emergency.services.dispatcher has comments about this incident Dec 2000. Apparently it was fairly well known that the dispatcher was a poor performer but upper management did not care.
alt.emergency.services.dispatcher Date: �� Fri, Dec 8, 2000, 6:16am (EST+5) Organization: Subject: Re: Yet Another Philadelphia Article - Once the assignment arrives at the radio console, simply sending it via the keyboard triggers a printout in the station where the pieces that were dispatched are housed. This also should trigger a screenfull of info concerning the assignment on the medic units MDT. This is to be augmented with a verbal dispatch over the appropriate radio band/s. The unit in question evidently did not recieve the MDT info and were on the street, relying on verbal dispatches.
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File created 21 June 2000
Updated - 09Dec00 - EMS alerting procedure