MISHAWAKA — If you're having a heart attack or stroke, health care providers agree: get medical assistance fast. But some disagree when it comes to choosing the best place to go for immediate care in emergencies. Mishawaka paramedics say where you go could affect public safety.

Memorial Hospital, which owns MedPoint, says it sees hundreds of patients every day and occasionally one needs to go by ambulance to a hospital.

Mishawaka paramedics say that's a big deal when those calls leave the city with only one ambulance. They claim in some cases, the ambulance isn't needed.

When chest pains start, so does the clock. Experts say there's only 90 minutes to get treatment. For people who live in Granger, the closest option is often an urgent care center.

"I would hope you would make a right turn into the MedPoint," said Dr. Mark Walsh. "They look at you and say you know you are having a heart attack. They pick up the phone, and they have a cath lab ready and call an ambulance and take them from MedPoint to downtown, which takes maybe six minutes."

Paramedics say when one of the two city ambulances is frequently going to urgent care centers, it's a problem. Other departments have to cover their calls.

Mishawaka paramedic Steve Shedd says, many times, a private ambulance company could be called to the urgent care center.

"A lot of times they don't give dispatchers all the information they know and that causes us to go lights and sirens when it isn't necessary," he said.

But sometimes it is. They picked up a patient suffering a heart attack at MedPoint Thursday. The paramedics say the patient should have called 911 and gone directly to an emergency room.

"Breathing problems, uncontrolled bleeding or loss of feeling to any of the extremities is not appropriate for a clinic," said Shedd.

"If they are busy, you can be waiting for minutes or hours before a doctor sees you," said James Elliot, another Mishawaka paramedic.

A Memorial Hospital spokesperson says they call for ambulances for less than 1 percent of their patients because they say they can treat most cases.

"MedPoint can handle any kind of emergency. That facility is equipped to render life saving procedures," said Dr. Walsh.

The paramedics say they've tried to talk to MedPoint about encouraging people to use their clinics for non-emergencies. They claim MedPoint has brushed them off.

The spokesperson for MedPoint is not in town, and the hospital spokesperson says, to her knowledge, there has been no dialog between the two groups.