Phoenix Fire Department uses taxis for those in non-emergency situations
Jan 25, 2018, 4:10 AM | Updated: 9:26 am
(Flickr photo)
(Flickr photo)
PHOENIX — A little-known program run by the Phoenix Fire Department allows officials to call taxi cabs for certain 911 callers to take them for medical care instead of an ambulance.
According to Capt. Jake Van Hook, the taxi-voucher program provides certain callers who are not facing a life-threatening medical emergency with a city-paid cab ride to the doctor’s office or pharmacy.
This, according to Van Hook, frees up ambulances for situations in which lives are on the line.
Van Hook said the department uses the program as a took to get some people to those alternate locations, particularly if they refuse to use an ambulance due to the cost. And fire officials will occasionally send people to the hospital in taxi cabs, but only if it is a non-life-threatening situation.
“It is not replacing ambulances and we’re not using it because we’re short on resources,” he said.
The taxi cabs will take people about 11 miles from their current location, Van Hook said.
The program has attracted a significantly greater amount of users over the past four years. Van Hook said workers have dispatched nearly 8,000 taxi cabs in 2016, compared to less than 3,000 in 2012.
KTAR News’ Atlan Hassard contributed to this report.
