Mountain View Fire Department unveils new ambulance transport service

The Mountain View Fire Department is ready to launch its first emergency ambulance transport service that will bring patients to the hospital without taking a fire engine out of service.

Until recently, the fire department has not provided its own ambulance during 911 emergency events. The service has always been supplied by private vendors, as part of an arrangement with Santa Clara County Emergency Medical Services.

That is now about to change as the city has purchased and outfitted a new ambulance that can take patients to the hospital instead of relying on a private provider.

“We brought out the ambulance because we recognized there was a need,” said Robert Maitland, fire department spokesperson. About 70% of the calls the department receives are for emergency medical reasons, according to Maitland.

But it is not just the volume of calls that prompted the city to purchase its own ambulance.

The availability and timeliness of private ambulances also has been a challenge for the city, according to an April 8 council report. And in some cases, private ambulances have been dispatched without paramedics, requiring the fire department to staff them, the report said.

Nearly three years ago, the city approved the purchase of an ambulance for $390,000 after receiving the go-ahead from the county.

It received the ambulance last October, a delay that Maitland attributed to supply shortages. Since then, the fire department has been outfitting the vehicle to get it ready for service.

“We had to put all of the Mountain View logos on it, all the radios in it. We had to do all the gurneys, all the medications. It doesn’t come from the doctor ready to go,” Maitland said. “It takes time for us to put it on the road.”

The service will be exactly the same as before, just provided by the fire department instead of another vendor, Maitland said.

The cost also will be the same, as the fees are standardized and set by the county, according to the council report.

Another big advantage to having an ambulance is that it helps keep the city’s fire engines in service irrespective of a medical emergency event, Maitland said.

Previously, a fire engine deployed during a medical emergency would need to stay with the patient and accompany the private ambulance to the hospital. It would often travel to a different city and then take time to get that fire engine back. Now that no longer needs to happen, according to Maitland.

“It’s a great, tremendous value to our residents,” Maitland said.

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