[HISTORY: Adopted by the Suffolk County Legislature 9-14-1993 by L.L. No.
21-1993 (Ch. 393 of the 1985 Code). Amendments noted
where applicable. Uncodified sections of local laws amending these
provisions are included at the end of this chapter.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Emergency medical services — See Ch. 928.
A.
This Legislature hereby finds and determines that certain proprietary
ambulance companies and/or advanced life-support first-responder services
monitor, intercept or otherwise receive the alarm transmissions of
law enforcement agencies, fire service agencies, other ambulance services
or advanced life-support first-responder services, and that such proprietary
ambulance companies use information contained in such alarm transmissions
for the purposes of dispatching resources to, or responding to, such
alarms without a written mutual-aid agreement authorizing such responses.
B.
This Legislature further finds and determines that such dual, uncoordinated
and unnecessary responses on the part of such proprietary ambulance
companies constitute an unsafe practice.
C.
This Legislature also finds that such unsafe and uncoordinated responses
on the part of such proprietary ambulance companies interfere with
the emergency medical services provided by volunteer fire departments
and volunteer ambulance companies which provide such services as a
municipal entity or pursuant to a written agreement with local government.
D.
This Legislature also finds and determines that the behavior of such
proprietary ambulance companies and their employees in undertaking
such responses has a deleterious effect upon the volunteer providers,
contributes to high stress and low morale in the volunteer service
and increases the cost of providing such services to local taxpayers
and third-party insurers.
E.
Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to stop the abuses and
unsafe practices caused by the uncoordinated and unnecessary response
of these proprietary ambulance companies and to stop such proprietary
companies from responding to alarms that they have monitored, intercepted
or otherwise received and for which no written mutual-aid agreements
exist.
No proprietary agency providing ambulance or advanced life-support
first-responder service shall monitor, intercept or otherwise receive
any radio, telephone or other form of alarm transmission of any law
enforcement agency, any fire service agency, any ambulance service
or any advanced life-support first-responder service and use information
contained in such alarm transmission for the purposes of dispatching
resources to or responding to any such alarms, except when responding
pursuant to a written mutual-aid agreement authorized by an appropriate
municipality.
Any proprietary agency providing ambulance service or advanced life-support first-responder service which is found to be in violation of § 681-2 of this chapter shall not be eligible to enter into nor to execute any agreements with the County for the provision of advanced life-support services; shall not be permitted to provide any services which are paid for in part or in whole by the benefits of any group health insurance program funded by the County; and shall not be permitted to serve as a Medicare or Medicaid vendor for the County Department of Social Services.
This chapter shall apply to emergency responses occurring on
or after the effective date of this chapter.
