Dallas paramedics are making plenty of house calls, but they’re not making much money for the city.
Officials started the Mobile Community Healthcare program last year with the hope that that it could pay for itself using fees from hospitals that want to alleviate the burden on their emergency rooms. But records obtained by The Dallas Morning News show that the program is off to a slow start.
The city invoiced $56,325 through the first six months of the program. More than $41,000 of the fees had yet to be paid.
That means the program is on track to pay for only about two of the seven paramedics on staff this fiscal year.
“In terms of revenue, I had hoped to be further along than this,” said Assistant Chief Norman Seals. “But I think we’re on a good track right now, and really starting to show some good positive improvements.”
Still, Seals and other officials remain optimistic that it’s simply a growing pain of a program that will grow to be something special for people who need help.
“In my book, it will always be about the patients we’re working with,” he said.