Nearly every member of the Los Angeles City Fire Department is a trained paramedic—which is vital considering that over 80 percent of the calls they receive are medical, rather than fire related. In South Los Angeles, the Fire Department has become the frontline in health care for many residents. While 911 calls often involve life-threatening cases like car crashes, gunshot wounds and chest pains, many more are non-urgent cases that could be better—and more cost effectively—handled in a clinic. But with the growing number of uninsured and underinsured people, 911 has become the speed dial for those who either don’t have access to health care or who don’t manage their care properly. The end result is that LAFD paramedics often can’t concentrate on real emergencies because they are busy filling the health care void.