By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A policy designed to decrease the number of people Cincinnati firefighters take to hospitals was scrapped Thursday. Officials said it had the opposite effect, resulting in more ambulance trips and shortages.

EMTS and paramedics had wanted relief from the department's previous mandate that everyone insisting on a ride to the hospital get one. So in mid-February, they started following new guidelines that allowed them to refuse to transport patients who suffered from a short list of minor maladies, including toothaches, soft-tissue injuries and low blood sugar.

But after trying it out for two months, firefighters found they were actually taking about 10 percent more people to the hospital than before, said Doug Stern, public relations director for Local 48, of the Cincinnati Fire Fighters Union. And from Feb. 15 to April 6, ambulances were unavailable 103 times, he said - about 25 percent more often than the same period in the previous two years.

Now a committee of fire and city officials and union members will start over to create another way to lessen the number of unnecessary medical runs made by the city's six ambulances and four rescue squads.

"It was decided that we're going back to the drawing board," Stern said.

The new guidelines also specified when patients must be transported. Those included people with chest pain, shortness of breath, headaches, first-time seizures and anyone under 18. During Feb. 15-April 6, crews made 6,145 emergency medical runs - an average of 118 a day. People were taken to the hospital in about 64 percent of those runs, Stern said - about a 15 percent increase.

Councilman Pat DeWine, who ordered the new policy last year, was aware of the cancellation, an aide said, and would be monitoring the process of creating a replacement.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com