Provide names of other journalists involved.
No other journalists involved
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
8-Aug-11
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
The article takes a look at how many of the ambulance calls in Connecticut are for genuine emergencies. By Connecticut law, a person calling 911 requesting transportation to a hospital cannot be refused, and while many calls for legitimate medical concerns, the emergency room isn’t the best place to treat them, ambulance officials say. It can bog down the ambulance system, but most agree that the problem doesn’t have any easy solution.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
State schedule fees for ambulance rides, local schedule fees, police records of calls made for ambulance service.
Explain types of human sources used.
Several local and state ambulance officials, state health officials, a ride-along with the New Britain EMT service.
Results:
None.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
None.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
It helps if the state you’re reporting keeps better records of ambulance rides than Connecticut does, which has been an ongoing issue among EMT officials. Also, make sure you do an ambulance ride-along if you can– it filled in a lot of the questions I had that the statistics couldn’t tell me.