The Garden City Telegram
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EMS squeezed by more calls
Published 7/4/2009 in Local News
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
Jeff Landgraf, a supervisor with Finney County Emergency Medical Services, understands some of the issues Finney County commissioners must weigh when it comes to EMS' request to add another crew to its 2010 budget.
The job of EMS, Landgraf said Thursday night as he sat in the EMS office, 803 W. Mary St., is to give taxpayers the help and services they need when it matters most -- at the time of an emergency.
The commissioners' job is to ensure taxpayers are getting the most out of their money and that county dollars are being spent in the best possible way, he said.
The County Commission and EMS must find the balance between providing needed services when it's critical, but make sure it's something the county and taxpayers can afford to pay. The commission has been discussing for the last several meetings how to find that balance and will once again take up the issue of possibly adding another EMS crew during Monday's meeting.
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Laurie Sisk/Telegram - Emergency personnel, including Finney County EMS, respond to a two-vehicle crash last year on Fulton Street near Evans Street. Finney County commissioners are considering whether to budget for an additional EMS crew, at a cost of $278,600 for personnel.
According to the proposed 2010 EMS budget, about $278,600 is estimated in salaries and benefits for an additional six full-time personnel. In EMS Director Bob Prewitt's budget proposal with the expansion, EMS is requesting $1,992,280 for 2010, about $527,000 more than in 2009.
After discussing the request in June, commissioners asked Prewitt to return to the commission on Monday -- a week before the commission is scheduled to have its budget workshop. Commissioners are seeking more information about options that could delay adding a crew until the county and EMS can save enough money to fund it.
The next call
About 6:30 p.m. Thursday night, Ryan Rogers, an emergency medical technician-intermediate (EMT-I) or the "middle man" as he calls it, was replacing paramedic Andy Hendrix and settling in for a night no one was able to predict -- whether the crew would receive a lot of calls or remain fairly quiet.
At the time, Landgraf, Rogers and paramedic Kenny Smith were on duty for Garden City. There are always two teams -- Holcomb and Garden City -- on duty, and one team that's on call.
The Holcomb team was transferring a patient to Wichita Thursday night, which left Landgraf and the Garden City team to cover the entire county. On some nights, when it's slower, it is fine for one ambulance and crew to be gone for 10 or so hours on a transfer, Landgraf said.
On the busier nights -- when there are more calls coming in -- things can get dicey.
Landgraf, Prewitt and other EMS staff are finding that the station is getting into more and more situations they refer to as "Status 0" or "Status -1 or -2." According to Landgraf, "Status 0" is where both teams with ambulances, as well as Landgraf, are out on calls. "Status -1 or -2" occurs when all crews are out working emergency calls, and there's a call that's waiting for someone to be available to respond to.
"Problem is, we're starting to get the next call," Landgraf said of the station starting to see more calls waiting when no EMS staff is readily available.
So far, no one has had to wait long, Landgraf said, explaining that when the station reaches "Status 0," he'll tell his staff to "expedite," meaning provide the quality and level of care needed but then get available for the next call as soon as possible.
EMS also is transferring fewer patients to cut down on the possibility of a call having to wait.
Tracking the numbers
Recording the times EMS has been in the situation of having all staff and vehicles out on emergency calls, or even when an emergency call comes in beyond that, still is a fairly new procedure for staff.
A blank box is set aside on paperwork for staff to mark when the situation occurs, but, depending on the day, if it gets busy, the box might not get checked, Landgraf said. So the numbers may not include everything, but they at least show there are times when calls are waiting, he said.
In March, EMS had all trucks and crews out at least 10 times -- the situation occurred at least eight times in April, five in May and nine up to June 25. EMS recorded at least one call waiting in both April and May.
While the EMS emergency call load is increasing, it's hard to predict how many calls will come in for help on any given day, Landgraf said.
Landgraf originally joined Finney County EMS in 1988, serving as a supervisor since January 2003. He remembers seeing the service's call load decrease in the year after the December 2000 ConAgra fire shut down the plant. Then, the calls started going back up, continuing to climb through this year, he said.
On Tuesday, the service had seven calls by noon and 10 calls by 2 p.m.
On Thursday, EMS had just five calls by 6:30 p.m.
"It's feast or famine," Landgraf said of the call load.
Anticipating
Landgraf sees Garden City as a changing community.
Sunflower Electric Power Corp.'s proposed expansion of an 895-megawatt coal-fired plant still is an unknown but could provide a boost in population. The baby boomer population is aging. Garden City USD 457 is preparing to construct a new high school. And it all has the potential to increase emergency call load.
What Landgraf sees EMS trying to do is anticipate the need for emergency services in the future.
He doesn't believe EMS is at a crisis point, yet, but he'd rather see the service and county start anticipating the need and having everything in place to meet the need before someone's left waiting for help in an emergency.
So on Monday, Prewitt and EMS staff will be back before the commission to further explore the question of meeting the need while lessening the financial burden on the county and its taxpayers.
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