Non-emergency ambulance services save lives, preserve quality of life

October 23, 2007
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

There was a time, not so long ago, when “ambulance” meant any hearse-shaped vehicle that carried anyone who wasn’t ambulatory – the living, the ill, the nearly dead and the goners.  That was before hospital emergency medical services acquired vehicles that are little less than emergency rooms on wheels.

It was also before costs accompanying EMS technologies and skill sets made simple movement of non-emergent, non-ambulatory patients by rolling hospital units prohibitive.  In the past few years, non-emergency ambulance transport companies have cropped up in Del Rio, capitalizing on the limitations of staff and vehicles at Val Verde Regional Medical Center.

Though highly trained and well-equipped, EMS crews may be fully involved at times with truly emergent patients and multiple episodes.  That situation – though rare – is of no consolation to an aging patient who must get to a kidney-cleansing dialysis appointment.  Nor does the hospital’s busy-ness mollify the family of a patient who needs transportation to more sophisticated treatment potentials in San Antonio, but doesn’t need the lights, sirens or costs of a VVRMC box ambulance.

According to George Vargas, supervisor for the Del Rio office of Medical Transports of South Texas (MTST), his company was the first of a covey of non-emergent services to arrive in Del Rio within recent years of increasing demand and a paucity of supply.  And, though competition has arrived, business is good.  “We have five vehicles here, and sometimes they’re all out on calls,” said LindaSue Peterson.  Peterson and all the drivers at MTST are EMT-Basic certified (the ground floor of emergency medical technicians’ official state endorsements).  Six of the 10 drivers are also firefighters with Del Rio Fire & Rescue Department and the Val Verde County Rural Volunteer Fire Department, qualifying them as “first responders” at the scenes of accidents or other injuries.

Headquartered in Eagle Pass and owned and co-directed by Arturo Mery, MTST also serves that city and Carrizo Springs, taking medical direction from Dr. Eric Garcia Llorens.  The owner of the Del Rio MTST service is Orlando Garcia.  Vargas said the non-emergent companies always have an uphill battle to clarify their unique role in health care in this region.  “Most people think we’re an emergency transport service, and we’re not, but if it becomes an emergency situation enroute, we’re fully equipped and prepared to deal with that,” said Vargas.

Peterson explained, “We can provide the basic ABCs of life support:  Clearing an airway – though we can’t intubate (inserting a flexible plastic tube to open the airway) – assisting breathing and checking circulation.  We want to make sure you’re not bleeding out.”  MTST EMTs, according to Peterson, are quick to respond if a patient takes a turn for the worse.  “If a patient ‘codes’ enroute, we’ll call for ALS [Advanced Life Support] assistance right now,” Peterson said.  Cell phone communications are used during the MTST transports.

Vargas added that three of the Del Rio vehicles are certified as “Mobile Intensive Care Units” with Basic Life Support and a paramedic on board.  The Eagle Pass office has paramedics on call, and can service Del Rio as necessary.  Peterson feels the company’s depth is a real asset to patients in questionable condition.  “There’s an old saying that the paramedic saves the patient, but the EMTs save the paramedic.  We’re the paramedic’s lifeline.”

There are other misunderstandings among those who have not used MTST or other non-emergent companies, according to Vargas.  “Medicare and Medicaid patients really don’t know what they’re eligible for, and should get in touch with us if they’re unsure,” Vargas said. 

Vargas also frets that uninformed Del Rioans suspect that MTST and other services are fairly impersonal and detached from their patients, that the service is simply a financial obligation.  “Sometimes our EMTs will go by and visit patients on their days off, or on Thanksgiving or Christmas, just to see how they’re doing, or maybe take them a plant or some little gift,” Vargas said.

Normal office hours for the MTST crews at 1100 N. Bedell Avenue are 5 a.m. – 5 p.m., but Peterson said that, depending on patient needs, those can stretch from 3 a.m. to 10 p.m.