SAN ANTONIO -- The next time you call an ambulance for flu-like symptoms, you may get a taxi cab instead.

In an effort to deal with increased calls for the H1N1 virus, the San Antonio Fire Department has implemented a taxi voucher system.

When emergency responders determine that a patient is not in a life-threatening situation, the patient can receive a taxi voucher for a trip to a hospital.

"It's a one-way trip billed to the city and it's actually a cost savings to the city," said SAFD Capt. Nathan Peacock.

Last month, nearly 20 percent of 911 calls routed to fire dispatchers involved callers reporting flu-like symptoms. Any call that comes in gets an EMS unit.

"It's hard to differentiate between regular flu and swine flu over the phone," Peacock said.

While the city does pick up the cost of the taxi ride, it keeps the EMS unit from making an unnecessary trip, thereby still saving money and time.

"We have to keep them (EMS) in service as much as we can to take care of the citizens, so if we can take taxi voucher, issue it to the patient and let them go to the hospital that way, it puts the unit back in service a lot quicker," Peacock said.

Earlier this year, SAFD implemented a $1.3 million program that allowed older EMS units to be used for non-emergency transports. But the program was eliminated after six months because it wasn't considered cost-effective.