For City Council Meeting [September 10, 2019]
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
APPROVAL: Rod Foster, City Administrator
FROM: Brian Park, Acting Fire Chief
Title
Request City Council to Approve a Contract Agreement between the City of Rialto and Dr. Michael M. Neeki for Medical Director Services in the amount of $20,000 per Fiscal Year starting July 1, 2019 (FY20).
Body
BACKGROUND
The Rialto Fire Department provides Paramedic Response and Emergency Ambulance Transport Service for areas within the City's legal geographic boundaries. The Inland Counties Emergency Medical Agency (ICEMA) has statutory medical control over the delivery of these services. ICEMA requires that all pre-hospital Advanced Life Support (ALS) providers retain a Medical Director who oversees certain aspects of prehospital medical care administered by that provider.
The Fire Department currently has a medical director that has worked under contract with the City since 2011. The annual fee for services under this contract is $17,500. Over the last five years, the scope of practice for our paramedics has expanded, and will continue to expand with new life-saving drugs, techniques, and response models. With these improvements in service delivery, the complexity of the Medical Director's role and the time commitment continues to increase.
Arrangements to retain a Medical Director for these purposes are the responsibility of the provider agency. Agreements for these services generally include a scope of work and agreed upon fees for service. These fees are intended to be compensation for time spent meeting the scope of work, and to offset the increased insurance rates that are incurred by the physician for allowing paramedics to operate under the physician's license. Annual insurance rates can range from between $5,000 and $7,500annually and continue to increase as the scope of practice for paramedics increases.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION
Paramedics in the ICEMA region have a broad sc...
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