Chief evaluating EMS options
BOARDMAN
Township trustees reiterated Tuesday that they have tasked Fire Chief George Brown with evaluating options for emergency medical service.
Trustees said they want the fire chief to determine what model will provide the best care; is most cost-effective; has the best response time; and is sustainable.
Administrator Jason Loree said the final recommendation could be for a township-run EMS ambulance service, a public-private partnership or a contract with a single private EMS provider.
Currently, the fire department arrives at medical calls as first responders and several local ambulance services are used for transportation on a rotating basis, Loree said.
Harry Wolfe, president of International Association of Firefighters Local 1176, said he received an email Tuesday from the administration about midterm bargaining as it relates to an EMS service.
Wolfe said he does not have any details because the union hasn’t sat down with the administration yet.
“Our union has had the position that we should offer to run EMS. ... We would have to negotiate the parameters of that because our job description is firefighters,” Wolfe said.
A fire-department report advocating the start of a township-run ambulance service was presented to trustees many years ago and a feasibility study was completed by the department in 2009.
About 80 percent of the calls that the department responds to are medical, Brown said.
Firefighters are almost always first to the scene and the response of the private ambulance service can vary, with one company averaging four minutes and another eight minutes, the chief said.
The township’s contracts with those outside ambulance companies stipulate a response time within nine minutes of the call 90 percent of the time, according to Vindicator files.
Trustees have not given Brown a deadline to complete the evaluation, but said the chief will report to the board about his progress on a regular basis.