MASON CITY – Mason City Fire Chief Bob Platts was recently asked about calls for service to Mercy Hospital where his department had to respond.
He offered the following information:
“In 2011 we responded to 13 calls at Mercy Hospital East Campus and none to West Campus. Of those 13, 5 were considered malicious where someone intentionally called in a false alarm or pulled the fire alarm. Other calls included smoke detector activation which could be from construction or smoke and unintentional transmissions.”
(PHOTO: MCFD responds to a false alarm at Mercy Hospital on Friday, June 15, 2012.)
Chief Platts was also asked about the cost for his department to respond to a fire call at Mercy.
“As far as cost there are several ways to consider that from just the fuel used to get there and back or breaking it down by the number of fire calls we have each year and dividing that into our budget.”
Sources tell NIT that a false alarm typically costs taxpayers between $500 and $800 after all the expenses such as wages, fuel, wear on vehicles, etc, are totaled.
Although it is common in other cities of similar size to charge , Mercy Hospital is not charged by the city for false alarm calls.
Find out how many calls we take to worth county and never transport and how that pays. Sometimes it is just to help someone up we never transport. To many of theses small towns abuse or services and Mason tax payers pay for it.
I’m glad to see people coming forward with their stories of medical fraud. Hospitals over time took advantage of their position as the gatekeepers between this world and the next. They essentially had everyone by the balls and labia. Ultimately I’m starting to realize that competition in the free market is the best way to improve conditions and care. However, because of the prohibitive costs and organization required to assemble medical clinics and hospitals, it’s not easy for competition to set up shop…or is it? I would like to see a group of nurses and doctors outside of Mercy set up a small clinic and begin competing.
Probably the the best comment I have seen you make on NIT Peter. I support you on this one.
Once again I must agree with you Peter. I too would like to see this happen but I don’t know how it could be with the major investment involved. Every time someone has tried (and it has been tried) Mercy ran them out of business and out of town.
Mercy once charged me 20K for one night in the hospital where I didn’t even get a shot, a meal, a shower or even a IV. The did a X-ray and that was it. Then they said they couldn’t find anything wrong but still charged 20K when I had no insurance. Then Dr. Quack the kidney doctor tried to do a scope on my kidney’s for another 6K and when I asked him why he said the ultra sound showed one kidney slightly smaller than the other. When I asked him what difference that made he said “well none”. Then I asked, why the test he walked out of the room. They still charged $150.00 for his visit. They are rip off artist.
Hmmmm……interesting. My wife once went to the Mercy ER with heart attack symptoms. Turned out to be a false alarm.
Do you think Mercy still billed me?
You can bet the farm they did, plus you probably received bills from specialist, labs and many other entities.