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Ambulance Chasing
Is Bridgeport ambulance company ‘patient-poaching' in New Haven?
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Business New Haven
10/1/2001
By: Linda Mele
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In an industry that has become increasingly cutthroat over the past decade, the latest controversy is over what the health-care industry calls ambulance “poaching” or “jumping.”
Loosely defined, it means stealing patients and/or responding to emergency calls outside the “first responder” area to which an ambulance company is by state license assigned. In New Haven it has become a hot topic.
To understand the controversy, one needs to know how the state's emergency medical system works.
According to James Paturas, Bridgeport Hospital's director of emergency medical services, Connecticut is divided into five EMS regions. Each has primary, or “first responders,” and secondary or “mutual aid responders.” Each responder is assigned a sponsor hospital or overseer in the region to which it is assigned by a license issued through the state's Department of Health.
New Haven is a member of the New Haven Sponsor Hospital Program. Bridgeport belongs to the Joint Hospital Planning Council of Bridgeport.
The “first responder” for Bridgeport Hospital is EFK of Connecticut Inc., d/b/a the Nelson Ambulance Service Co. According to the Secretary of the State's office, EFK is owned by Mark Panico and Saleem F. Khan, with a working address at 279 Noble St., Bridgeport. Khan's residence address is 2989 Ridge Rd., North Haven.
American Medical Response Inc. (AMR), headquartered at 55 Church St., New Haven, is the first responder for Yale-New Haven Hospital, the Hospital of Saint Raphael and Milford Hospital. It is also the designated first responder for a number of New Haven County communities.
AMR attorney Linda Whibey of Waterbury filed a lawsuit on behalf of AMR in New Haven Superior Court against Nelson for allegedly stealing patients by intercepting emergency calls and beating AMR ambulances to the scene in at least three instances. It asked for an immediate injunction that would prohibit Nelson from responding to calls in AMR's service area.
Whibey says the practice of jumping calls “violates the law and endangers patients' lives.”
The rest of the story gets tricky here because one of the calls AMR alleges Nelson “poached” was a call to the Montowese Health & Rehabilitation Center of North Haven at 163 Quinnipiac Avenue.
The owner of the Montowese facility - the entity that received the state's certificate of compliance - is registered as Faleena Realty, LLC with principal offices at 163 Quinnipiac Avenue. Faleena's agent of record is Farooq H. Kahn, who listed his residence as 2989 Ridge Rd., North Haven. Sound familiar?
“If everyone is trying to get to the scene of an emergency the quickest, with sirens blaring and lights flashing, it could become a safety hazard,” Whibey says.
“In addition, without the oversight of a New Haven hospital, cases and documentation can't be followed up appropriately and there's the question of whether AMR could be held legally liable for leaving the scene of an emergency since it is the designated first responder and was dispatched to the scene,” she adds.
Whibey says there's also the question of physician surveillance in out-of-area calls, whether Nelson crews are properly trained to administer whatever emergency aid is needed and the name of the hospital charged with the replacement of medical supplies.
Nelson, on the other hand, claims that no “poaching” or “jumping” occurred in the situations cited by AMR to file its claims.
Nelson attorney Martin Stillman of Rocky Hill argues that Superior Court does not have jurisdiction to rule on the suit because emergency ambulance services are regulated by the state DPH
Superior Court Judge Jonathan Blue agreed with Stillman and dismissed the suit. Whibey filed an appeal with the state Appellate Court.
In addition to emergency calls, Stillman also said Nelson gets private calls for transporting non-emergency patients to and from facilities such as the health-care center in Montowese.
Besides, there's no way Nelson could respond first from Bridgeport - some 30 minutes and nearly 16 miles away - when emergency vehicles could be dispatched from fewer than five miles and a few minutes away.
According to Stillman, a Nelson crew answered the call at the Montowese facility because it was already there on a patient-transport call.
According to DPH officials, the complaints are still under investigation.
When all is said and done, however, exactly what difference it makes which ambulance company answers a call is probably not high on a patient's list of priorities, but apparently it is to those who are dispatched to an emergency scene - and those who must pay for the services.
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