County continues to address concerns over ambulance coverage

Even with a new contract in place there continue to be questions and concerns around staffing of the ambulance stations in the county.

At the January 12, law enforcement committee meeting, committee members received an update on the ambulance service from administrator Bob Kirkley. Under the new contract, stations have at least one person on duty to respond to calls with the Medford station fully staffed.

Kirkley explained that he has been shifting staff to fill shifts at each of the stations to ensure it is fair and equitable for all the staff. Part-time, on-call positions also have the opportunity to fill staffing positions. Kirkley said it is the responsibility of those crew members to log and sign up for the shifts.

When there is an incident, the ambulance crew member stationed in the area responds and begins treatment. If a transport is needed, the ambulance from Medford is dispatched to go to the scene and do the transport including bringing back the EMT who initially responded. This will occasionally mean leaving the initial response ambulance at the scene until the crew can return to retrieve it.

Kirkley noted the medication box is taken from the ambulance when it needs to be left for any time. He said it is best for patient care to have the EMT who started care to continue it until they get to the hospital.

Under the contract, the county has staffing of 16.8 full time equivalent positions. However because ambulance shifts are 12 hours long this actually translates into about 12 actual people filling the needed shifts.

“There has never been a day that has not been covered according to the contract,” Kirkley said.

The new contract, as was the previous one, is very dependent on having the oncall staff members to fill in during incidents. The challenge is to get the on-call personnel to be willing to cover shifts. “There are people who don’t want to do on call,” he said, or he noted that the on-call shifts may be at another base than the one near their home and they may be unable to go to respond to those.

Kirkley said the mechanism for ambulance personnel to pick up shifts is really easy, but it relies on the on-call people to be willing to sign up for the shifts.

Work continues to need to be done to encourage people to apply to become oncall emergency medical services personnel.

Jail business

Taylor County Sheriff Larry Woebbeking answered concerns raised in a recent Vox Pop from a jail inmate at the January 12 law enforcement committee meeting.

Woebbeking noted that Vox Pops are the opinions of the writers and don’t necessarily reflect all the facts. He also noted that in Wisconsin jails are heavily regulated and inspected on a regular basis. He said the state looks at all aspects of inmate care and operational standards down to the calorie and food intake of inmates.

“We always do well in our inspections by the state,” he said, noting that if anything is found they work to correct it.

He noted that in this particular inmate’s situation, the cell block they were in was in the oldest part of the jail, which while still up to state standards is not as nice as other areas of the jail. This is considered a higher security area than other parts of the jail. He said the inmate was placed there because there was less trouble he could get into. However, Woebbeking noted the inmate still maintained all his jail privileges of being in a lesser security level.

Woebbeking said he has since been moved back to a different cell and is not happier.

Woebbeking noted the jail inspector had also been sent the letter and there were no concerns raised from the state. He invited members of the law enforcement community to take a jail tour to see first-hand how the jail operates.

Committee members expressed support for the idea of a jail tour and will work to set it up in a future meeting.

In other jail business, Woebbeking reported they had interviewed a candidate for the part-time jail nurse position. Filling the position would allow them to maintain the service in the jail without needing to pay a heavy fee to an outside vendor or seek to share a position with the public health department.

“His interview went well,” Woebbeking said, noting he was optimistic about being able to get the position filled. “I am pretty excited this might work out for us.”

The jail population is currently at 59 inmates with about 28 of them from Marathon County Jail.