Demand for ambulance service could lead to more county
costs in a challenging budget year.
Watauga Medics director Craig Sullivan and the Emergency Medical
Services advisory board have requested additional ambulance staff
based on a 9 percent increase in calls.
Sullivan first made the request during the county commissioners’
planning workshops in February and brought it to a commissioner
meeting last Monday.
Sullivan said the ambulance service had received 412 more calls
last year than in 2007 and suggested converting a nine-hour crew
to a 24-hour crew. Sullivan said this would add more staff during
the night when the service is most vulnerable to shortages. That
change would create three around-the clock crews to augment the
12-hour crew, which Sullivan told the commissioners would result
in no need for new equipment.
However, the change would add 11,592 hours of staff time per year,
and could affect the county subsidy for the ambulance service.
Sullivan has proposed funding the crew though a rate increase
for the ambulance service as well as a subsidy increase. He said
an additional $97,544 would fund the extra crew.
Sullivan has also requested a renewal of the service contract,
which he has held for nine years and which expires Dec. 31, 2009.
The county has the option of opening the service to bidding or
operating its own ambulance service.
Watauga Medics has eight ambulances, three more than are required
under Sullivan’s contract with the county. Sullivan noted
that he’s kept the service modernized and has answered more
than 36,000 service calls since 2000.
Watauga Medics received $706,816 from the county for its subsidy
in 2008, with the amount based on a sliding scale in step with
the Consumer Price Index. In 2000, the subsidy was $700,524 and
has gone as high as $814,000 in 2002 and dipping to $637,000 in
2007.
The ambulance service charges $300 for basic service trips and
$350 for advanced trips, and $7.50 per mile as a surcharge. Last
year, Watauga Medics added a 12-hour crew for Saturdays.
Currently on weekdays the ambulance service has two around-the-clock
crews, one nine-hour crew, and an on-call crew for transports
after 8 p.m.
On Saturday and Sunday, there are two 24-hour crews and two 12-hour
crews, with one on-call crew available for out-of-county transports
after 8 p.m.
Under Sullivan’s proposal, there would be at least three
crews available at all times and a 12-hour crew available during
the day when most routine transports are made.
The commissioners have agreed to consider the request as part
of its budget planning, though Sullivan acknowledged in his letter
to the county administration, “I realize the timing of this
request could not come at a worse time with the current economic
situation, but the number of calls will most likely increase with
each year.”
The ambulance service contracts are for five years, with Sullivan
seeking his third contract.
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