Another thought struck me, but I don't know how well it matches reality: aren't a lot of ambulances privately operated? If so, maybe the 911 dispatcher sends a city-operated fire truck at the same time just so that one of the units responding will be something the city can guarantee?
Yesterday, the fir etruck and the ambulance arrived at the same time (I think the ambulance won by a nose bumper). Not that a sample size of n=1 is meaningful, of course ...
I don't believe any city ambulances are privately operated. That seems like there would be too much liability.
However there are a lot of private ambulance transport companies for people who need to be transported by ambulance for tertiary care and possible life-saving procedures if nessesary, but they don't respond to emergencies. I worked for a wheelchair/ambulance transport for a while. I always drove the wheelchair van but we had two ambulances and drivers/EMTs for those when needed. Usually it was really old and frail people going from a nursing facility to a hospital for inpatient hospital treatment that didn't require emergency transport.
I think some larger hospitals and trauma centers own their own ambulances for transport between facilities as well.
(no subject)
Yesterday, the fir etruck and the ambulance arrived at the same time (I think the ambulance won by a
nosebumper). Not that a sample size of n=1 is meaningful, of course ...(no subject)
However there are a lot of private ambulance transport companies for people who need to be transported by ambulance for tertiary care and possible life-saving procedures if nessesary, but they don't respond to emergencies. I worked for a wheelchair/ambulance transport for a while. I always drove the wheelchair van but we had two ambulances and drivers/EMTs for those when needed. Usually it was really old and frail people going from a nursing facility to a hospital for inpatient hospital treatment that didn't require emergency transport.
I think some larger hospitals and trauma centers own their own ambulances for transport between facilities as well.