By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati firefighters are working on a plan that would allow them to refuse to take to the hospital people who call 911 with minor medical problems.

The city's policy of hauling everyone to the hospital who wants to go doesn't make sense and could endanger the lives of other patients who really need emergency help, said Councilman Pat DeWine.

He introduced legislation Tuesday that directs fire officials and the firefighters union to work with doctors and develop a list of standards EMTs can use to decide against transporting patients to the hospital.

Assistant Fire Chief Mike Kroeger agreed that the city's emergency medical system is overtaxed by callers whose problems are not emergencies.

But he expressed concern about letting EMTs and paramedics have too much discretion and said the department is concerned about being sued over judgment calls.

Firefighters complain about runs for ailments such as toothaches and colds. Of the more than 72,000 911 calls for fire department help in 2002, almost 70 percent were for emergency medical problems. The department does not track how many of those calls turned out to be unnecessary.

It also doesn't track how much time people have to wait while ambulances are unavailable.

Ambulances were unavailable 642 times last year.

Fire officials proposed other steps, short of allowing EMTs and paramedics to refuse to transport anyone. Those included a public education campaign to teach people when not to call 911 and updated, more restrictive scripts for 911 call takers to use in screening calls.

But DeWine said he didn't think those ideas went far enough. Fire union President Joe Diebold supported DeWine's plan, too, but said the standards need to be specific enough to give solid guidelines for firefighters on the scene.

DeWine asked that the plan be set by Oct. 1. It would be phased in after that.

Email jprendergast@enquirer.com