Marco Island Fire Rescue ambulance delay report says hospital, FD & other agencies failed to meet community expectations. Chief says citizens deserve answers.

Read 65 page report from City of Marco Island Fire Rescue Department

On Marco Island, Florida, Chief Michael Murphy is calling for state investigators to look further at what the fire department discovered in its own report into why it took almost an hour before an ambulance was ready to take 80-year-old Paul Anderson from an urgent care facility to Naples Community Hospital after he suffered a stroke on October 2. Anderson died at the hospital. The Marco Island Fire Rescue Department report concluded "that the system failed to meet the needs of our residents and did not meet the expectations of service that our residents and businesses should expect.'

Here's part of the report's summary:

On the morning of October 2nd a Marco Island resident brought his friend who was not feeling well to the NCH Marco Island Healthcare Center. The patient was checked into the facility for evaluation. The patient needed transport to the Naples Community Hospital for treatment. As described in the Deputy Chief’s report numerous efforts were made by the friend personally, the NCH Marco Island Healthcare Staff through 911 calls and our own personnel to obtain emergency transport for the patient all of which were hampered and delayed. The one critical issue was the fact that an ambulance owned by Naples Healthcare System was not staffed at 800: AM and the crew did not arrive until after 9:00 A.M. This issue became compounded by the actions of other agency personnel not on the scene, following directives in some cases, making phone calls, making assumptions despite seven requests resulting in delaying and cancelling, the ambulance in our station, an ambulance coming from Isle of Capri, and the Medflight Helicopter. In addition, a needed medication requested by the NCH Transport Medic in charge of the call was not on the NCH Transport ambulance or on our Fire Unit and had to be retrieved from the NCH Marco Island Healthcare Center for her to administer in treatment of the patient. However the medication is carried on Collier County EMS ambulances.  

Here's an excerpt from the story by WBBH-TV:

NBC2 uncovered NCH is supposed to have a paramedic on staff during hours that coincide with the urgent care center's hours; but the day Anderson was taken there, a paramedic wasn't scheduled to work until an hour after the office opened.

"I'm not clearly pointing the finger at NCH in this issue.  There are multiple failures to the system that resulted in this case," Murphy said.  "There were potentially violations of a COPCN, there were potentially violations of Duty to Act with response to 911, and I think our citizens deserve an answer."