Local ambulance on the move

Oak Park crew looks forward to having new home



NOT HERE—An AMR ambulance powers up in Oak Park using electricity on private property. Some residents became upset. Courtesy photo

NOT HERE—An AMR ambulance powers up in Oak Park using electricity on private property. Some residents became upset. Courtesy photo

Nobody wants to call an ambulance, but if the need arises, people expect their lifesaving personnel to be focused and alert.

Ambulance technicians often work 24-hour shifts, most of which is downtime as they wait for calls to come in. But the crews who work for private companies can’t take their breaks at county facilities such as police and fire stations. They must do their stopping and resting on private property.

According to a recent investigation by The Acorn, the ambulance crews working the graveyard shift in Oak Park have limited places to go where they can eat, sleep and use bathroom facilities. Few restaurants are open late.

One crew used a private apartment for its downtime, but some residents weren’t happy about the all-night ambulance departures and arrivals.

Now, plans are being made in Oak Park to give the EMTs their own place to call home.

Late night radio

Danielle Loveall became a resident of the Oak Park apartments at Lindero Canyon and Kanan roads in 2017. Below Loveall’s unit, Thousand Oaks-based AMR Medical Response had leased an apartment for use by their ambulance crews.

“I was awakened almost every night for nine of the 12-month lease at this apartment complex, sometimes twice per night by the dispatch radios and them coming and going,” she said. “When I reported it to management I was scolded and told they were saving lives and had been there 10 years.”

Loveall complained to the sheriff’s department and said deputies told the AMR personnel to turn down their radios. But the relief was short-lived. She eventually called Ventura County code enforcement.

Loveall suspected AMR was violating zoning laws by operating their business at the private apartment complex, and she was right.

Doug Leeper, Ventura County’s director of code compliance, investigated the complaint and found AMR would have to move—the apartment complex is zoned for residential use only.

Leeper said the EMTs were sleeping in the unit and had also strung electrical wiring to the parking lot to charge equipment in the parked ambulance.

County code enforcement sent the company a zoning violation, and eventually AMR complied, or at least tried to.

“They found a (new space) at a strip mall. As they came to us with it, we realized they couldn’t go there because they’d be sleeping in it and it’s not zoned for overnight stay as a habitable space,” Leeper said. “They got a little caught between a rock and a hard place.”

It took six months before the ambulance company finally moved out of the apartments, Loveall said.

Limited options

AMR’s choices are few.

The company has a contract to provide services to Oak Park, and the shift crews have to remain close by. If they spend their downtime in Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks or Agoura Hills, they could be too far away to effectively respond to a medical emergency.

Jeremy Shumaker, is the regional director for Gold Coast Ambulance and American Medical Response of Ventura County. The companies merged in 2010.

State law requires ambulance crews on 24-hour shifts to have access to sleeping quarters, showers and kitchens.

After being forced out of its Oak Park apartment, AMR had to reduce worker shifts from 24 to 12 hours.

“Crews on 12-hour and 24-hour shifts are able to use restrooms and eating facilities at hospitals, where they can often be for significant periods of time during their shift,” Shumaker said. “They’re also free to go to restaurants and use AMR station facilities.”

The problem is, the ambulance company has no station in Oak Park. An entire facility with kitchen and sleeping quarters should be ready by summer, officials said. Right now, crews only have a bathroom.

Shumaker said reducing ambulance crews to 12-hour shifts was the only option available while AMR searched for a new base of operations. With the new Oak Park station, EMTs will have their own place to eat and rest, and possibly return to 24-hour shifts.