County gets feedback on ambulance
Rural areas favor keeping full time coverage for ambulance needs
A smaller, but equally passionate group gathered in Medford on October 5 for the third of a series of community listening sessions to provide input into the future of how ambulance services are provided in the county in the future.
About 20 people attended the session in Gilman on Oct. 4 and between 15 and 18 people attended the Rib Lake meeting on Oct. 3. There were about 10 people total at the Medford session.
The meetings were set up by an emergency services subcommittee of the county’s Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Committee. Those in attendance included county staff, current and former members of the county’s ambulance crew and county board members.
The event began with an overview of the ambulance service as it is now with the county owning the ambulances and some major equipment and it being operated under contract by Aspirus. The county averages about 1,500 ambulance calls each year with about 780 of them in the immediate Medford area. The Gilman station is dispatched out about 290 See COUNTY on page 4 calls a year and Rib Lake, about 230 calls.
It was noted that not all of these calls involved transporting patients. Some, for example, include having an ambulance at sporting events such as football games or at community events such as the demolition derby. Due in large part to the shift from having largely on-call crews covering shifts to having to pay overtime and premium pay to full time crew members to cover shifts, the budgetary cost of the ambulance service has increased from about $400,000 in 2022 to $700,000 in 2023 and going forward the options are between $1.2 to $2.2 million.
In September, Aspirus gave the county 90 days notice, as per the terms of the current contract, that it would be terminating the contract and willing to work to develop a new one that would cover the costs of the service. At the request of the committee, Aspirus developed six possible options for moving forward along with projected prices for those options.
The full county board met on September 27 to discuss the options, but held off making a final decision as the committee negotiates a contract. Coming from that meeting, the subcommittee set community sessions to gather input from around the county. Included at the sessions was a review of the proposals and possible costs and an opportunity for people to ask questions and give input as to the plan options.
County board member Lorie Floyd said the goal of the session was to gather more questions so that they could address people’s concerns. “We are writing those notes down,” she said.
Concerns were raised by those in attendance about the treatment of on-call staff currently with the perception being that not enough is being done by Aspirus to recruit potential on-call staff. There were also objections raised that full time staff are able to qualify for sign-on bonuses and promotions from Aspirus, but this is not open to the on-call staff members.
“I think Taylor County needs to think of what we want,” said county board member Mike Bub. “I don’t know if we have a consensus of what is in the best interest of Taylor County.”
Bub questioned how negotiating was being done and with whom the county was negotiating with at Aspirus. He said they needed to be talking to people who could do actual negotiating.
“We need to sit down with people who are decision makers,” he said.
Floyd gave feedback from the meetings in Rib Lake and Gilman, noting the consensus of those meetings was that people supported having coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week and that they didn’t care what the price tag was for it.
Other ideas were presented such as having less than a full crew in Rib Lake or Gilman and have them serve as an intercept to begin treatment at calls while the transport ambulance from Medford is on its way. This raised the question of if volunteer firefighters or others could serve as drivers to supplement the people at the Gilman and Rib Lake stations.
One of the people in attendance noted that where she works in the Mayo health system in Eau Claire, these types of nonambulance volunteers are able to drive the ambulance but not able to go under lights and sirens.
There was also some discussion about how different areas handle on-call crew members with some places like Price County paying $1 per hour while in Thorp they get paid nothing and Owen-Withee gets paid a flat rate. Taylor County pays on-call people $3 per hour for their shift with it going up for when they are called out. It was noted that whatever the amount is it is not excessive.
Bub said the county needed to also keep finances in mind noting that the people attending the meetings in Rib Lake and Gilman weren’t even 1% of the people in Taylor County. “I can get 500 people saying we aren’t going to pay more taxes,” Bub said.
He cautioned about the impact raising the service costs would have on county property taxes in the future.
“If my child gets hit by a car in Jump River and there is no coverage, what is that worth? Do I care what they’re paying for taxes?” asked county board member Sue Swiantek.
Bub noted that people choose where they live, and compared it to people’s insurance rates based on how far from a fire department they live. He said that it is easy for people to say companies can afford the increase, but cautioned about potentially losing employers if the taxes keep getting higher.
Bub said in the future contracts with Aspirus, he wants something that holds them accountable to living up to the contract. “Quite frankly they are thumbing their nose at us,” he said.
County Board member Ray Soper said the goal is to have coverage and to do it in the most economical way of getting that coverage. He supports the idea of offering incentives to on-call staff and said they should do what they can to develop on-call personnel.
“We are hearing what everyone is saying,” Floyd said.
In addition to the sessions held last week, the county also had participants fill out a survey or have the option of filling it out on-line. That survey, which was available through the county website, was set to be closed on October 12 ahead of the scheduled law enforcement committee meeting on Friday morning.
Information from each of the sessions and from the survey will be brought to the committee meeting.
