WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderFire department evolves in tough economy

Fire department evolves in tough economy

BELOIT (WREX)- It's an area of social services we don't often think about, until we need it the most: ambulances.  It's ambulances, and fire departments, that are facing an ever-evolving role in a tough economy.

Scott Formankiewicz comes from a family of Beloit firefighters.  So, it seemed like a natural fit to follow in his father's and uncle's footsteps.

"It seemed back then, you heard more stories about fires and they were more predominantly fire based, now it seems that so many of the calls that we do are primarily EMS," said Formankiewicz.

Two years ago, the Beloit Fire Department saw an increase in the number of ambulance calls it received and responded to.  That prompted fire officials to try to figure out why there were so many calls, and how could they be reduced. 

"In 2007 we saw a dramatic increase in the number of runs we received, and what we saw was that people were using the ambulance for non-emergency situations," said Fire Chief Brad Liggett.

So the department set out to reduce the number of non-emergency calls, from a sore tooth, to a stubbed toe.  It says one of the issues is the lack of primary care, especially for the uninsured.  When more and more people rely on the ambulance service for their primary care, someone has to pay. 

"We increase our rates by about 9.5 percent, per year, on average, to meet what we need to run the service.  We collect about 53, 54 percent of our billings," said Liggett. 

So far this year, the numbers of non-emergency and emergency calls has decreased by nearly 300.  Ligget believes the decrease is partially due to the economy.  He says people don't have the money to pay for care if they need it.

But when it comes down to it, the most important thing for Formankiewicz is being able to help people every day.  "How I look at it is, in all reality, we're here, this is what we do, we signed up for this.  This is what we want to do.  We're here to provide the service, so regardless, we're still going to be here.  We're going to do it, and love doing what we do," he said.