In San Mateo County, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are provided by a combination of Local Government Fire Departments and a Private Sector Ambulance Transport Provider (with the exception of South San Francisco Fire).  This EMS Model is approved by the County Board of Supervisors and oversight is provided by San Mateo County EMS.  We do not believe this model serves the EMS Workers, Local Government or the General Public for a variety of reasons.

We believe that EMS should be run under a Public Safety Model.  This model should use public employees to operate under recognized national standards developed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) for system deployment and follow industry standards for unit utilization.  At no point should a private company’s profit margins trump the public’s safety.

The general public’s expectation of receiving an adequate number of qualified personnel on appropriate apparatus within acceptable time frames to make a difference in their medical emergency have to be met.  The study below outlines what a Public Safety Model for San Mateo County EMS Transport could look like to do just that.