THE WORST CITY GOVERNMENT
The Worst City Government In the District, crises are treated like winter colds: Wait 'em out, they usually go away. There's no better example of that remedy than the city's treatment of its...
...But an internal report leaked to The Washington Post this past summer suggests the mayor's emergency procedures were about as curative as a nose job...
...A year later, with the rescue squads as accident-prone as ever, the city council ordered major organizational surgery, and control of the ambulance bureau was shifted from the fire chief to the city administrator...
...And who are these precious paramedics...
...The District isn't fussy...
...You pee in a cup," summarizes one new hire, "and then they call up your neighbors...
...Baltimore, with fewer calls, retains three times that number...
...But a year and a half ago, city officials promised 100 new paramedics to bring the city's service up to speed...
...How to save this essential service used by 150,000 residents a year...
...Meanwhile, the District's bad reputation hurts efforts to hire ambulance paramedics...
...Three years ago, a task force complained that a background clearance and drug screening were the only tests certified paramedics needed to pass to get hired...
...For $52,000 he hired a prominent public relations firm to educate the public on when to dial 911...
...Katherine Boo The Monthly depends on its readers to keep track of the breakdown of big city government...
...For years the city has relied overwhelmingly (and anachronistically) on lessskilled emergency medical technicians...
...NW Washington, DC 20009...
...Today, the paramedic who slaps a defibrilator on your chest undergoes the same strenuous screening...
...But the mayor himself had a better idea...
...Six months after the report was leaked, Barry's men are still mulling its contents...
...Please send your nominations to: Worst City Government The Washington Monthly 1611 Connecticut Ave...
...There's no better example of that remedy than the city's treatment of its ambulance service, which in 1987 made national news for getting lost en route to dying patients, for "rescuing" the wrong people, and for instructing a man who dialed 911 as his mother was dying to "Hey, hey, grow up...
...The Worst City Government In the District, crises are treated like winter colds: Wait 'em out, they usually go away...
...Since that announcement, fewer than two dozen hires have hit the streets...
...And at the end of 1988, Barry proclaimed the crisis over: D.C...
...now had a "great ambulance service"—hovering on the verge of greater...
...That gives the District a grand total of 44 paramedics answering those 150,000 yearly calls...
...Citing lousy training, weak supervision, an obsolete communication system, "sixties-era policies and practices," and a basic "lack of urgency" on the front lines, the draft report calculates that the average ambulance response time in the District remains among the slowest in the nation—with the tardiest responses being to calls from Washington's poorest neighborhoods...
...In 1987, members of Mayor Marion Barry's ambulance advisory committee came up with the obvious answer: Shut the damn thing down...
Vol. 21 • December 1989 • No. 11
