By Hector Gonzalez
Special to The Lookout

December 9, 2015 --The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday bolstered the City's response to medical emergencies with the addition of two refurbished rescue ambulances and a new director of medical services for the Fire Department.

Santa Monica-based Dr. Walid Ghurabi will immediately step into the newly created three-year contract position, consulting the SMFD on its emergency medical services.

His annual salary of $42,000 could be extended for another two years at the Council's discretion, bringing the total cost of the possible five-year contract to $210,000.

Ghurabi, who also is an emergency room physician at UCLA-Santa Monical Medical Center, will provide his expertise in nearly every aspect of emergency care rendered by the SMFD, including ensuring its “policies, procedures and protocols” comply with county and state standards.

Already familiar with SMFD's firefighters who transport critical care patients to the medical center, Ghurabi also regularly attends the department's monthly meetings, according to a staff report that also deemed him “best qualified” to provide medical director services.

His appointment was part of the consent calendar for Tuesday's Council meeting, which also included $353,283 to refurbish ambulances from Emergency Vehicles Group Inc. (EVG), with an option to buy two additional vehicles.

At least two additional ambulances are needed to implement the City's six-month rescue ambulance pilot project. Six new rescue ambulance paramedics were hired by SMFD Chief Scott Ferguson for the program.

The plan could eventually lead to a permanent policy of sending two-person ambulances (the six positions would cover two-person ambulances for each eight-hour shift) rather than four-person trucks for some emergency situations (“Union Head Opposes Santa Monica Fire Chief's Staff Plan,” January 29, 2015).

Specifically, the chief's plan adds the two-person ambulance to the existing service in a pilot program for Fire Station No. 2, which serves the section of the City south of Olympic Boulevard and west of 14th Street.

Under the pilot program, emergency calls would receive a response from the ambulance with two paramedics, the traditional four-person truck with two paramedics and two EMTs as well as a private ambulance with two EMTs.

If it were determined the situation was a lesser emergency, the truck, which would be traveling slightly behind, would be instructed to turn around.

Officials will periodically evaluate the program's effectiveness, according to City staff.

“The pilot program’s goal is to leave the engine in service a greater percentage of time, making it available to respond on advanced life support calls, when it may be necessary to have additional personnel available to care for a more critical patient,” staff wrote.

Sending the “right response resource to the right call at the right time” will reduce response times, improve response reliability and decrease the number of calls per day a unit is assigned to an incident, said staff.

To fully implement the program staff is recommending refurbishing two ambulances from its existing fleet of four, only one of which “can be used to transport patients effectively due to the other three being at or nearly at gross vehicle weight capacity,” said staff.

The ambulances would be refurbished by the vendor at an estimated cost of approximately $180,000 each. One ambulance would serve as a “front-line,” or primary vehicle, with the second as a reserve unit.

“Additionally, depending on the outcome of the pilot program, the (Fire) Department may be in a position to implement a second rescue ambulance in the fall of 2016,” said staff.

“If this occurs, the department will need to refurbish one or two additional rescue ambulances in its existing fleet in late 2016 or early 2017.”