According to a report from TMJ4, Midwest Medical Transportation Company, owner of the private ambulance company Paratech, has notified the Milwaukee (WI) Fire Department’s (MFD’s) chief that it will seek to terminate its 911 agreement with the city.
Paratech is one of three private ambulance companies in the agreement and would be the second company to terminate its share of the agreement since last year. City documents state the company Meda-Care exited the agreement in July 2020.
Curtis Ambulance and Bell Ambulance would still remain with the agreement if Paratech left.
The four companies were assigned basic life support (BLS) calls, which are usually non-life-threatening calls. The agreement was designed to allow MFD paramedics to focus on the most serious calls without affecting response times.
As of July 2020, Paratech was receiving 35 percent of the BLS calls, with Bell getting 39 percent and Curtis receiving 26 percent, according to city documents.
The increased call load has been difficult on all private ambulance companies. The most recent Private Ambulance Provider Service Report shows that the percentages of calls to which the companies were unable to respond were higher than the city’s standards for two of the three companies.
Curtis Ambulance CEO Jim Baker said that part of the reason Curtis has been stressed is that it can be difficult to keep up with staffing. Baker noted that Curtis would not be able to deal with the call load for which Paratech is responsible as well as what the company already covers.
