Ambulance service
Paula Taylor R.N., Ph.D
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
THOSE of you who know me understand my career has been dedicated to improving health care services in our great community. I have worked for Newman Regional Health for 32 years and have watched some very exciting changes improve the access to care, the timeliness of life saving interventions and the skill of the pre-hospital providers. I am writing today because I am very concerned about a quietly developing storm that has the potential of negatively impacting this progress and reversing years of improved morbidity and mortality.
I remember well when Emporia was served by a Type II ambulance service staffed with EMT’s — many of whom I assisted in training — which was a vast improvement over the funeral home-based emergency response that was in place until the early 1970s. I served on the Ambulance Task Force with Emporia Mayor Julie Johnson and worked closely with Fire Chief James Woydziak to advocate for a transition to a Type I Service (paramedic level) capable of pre-hospital advanced life support (ALS). I rejoiced as that dream became a reality and have enjoyed watching countless improved patient outcomes because of that level of pre-hospital care!
I am now watching that dream crumble as skilled paramedics of the Lyon County EMS leave to seek employment elsewhere because of a lack of competitive pay. The pay for medics has historically been behind that for comparable professions. I am well aware of this as I was a paramedic before I was a nurse and this was a staggering discrepancy for many years.
But this is no longer the case. Emergency Medical Services and municipalities have come to value the contribution to improved outcomes, scope and billable services and are paying competitive wages to recruit and retain these valuable practitioners. There are currently days in which there are no paramedics available at Lyon County EMS making it impossible for them to function at a Type I level and to take ALS transfers. We at Newman Regional Health are forced to look to other providers to make those ALS transfers. I am already developing a plan to invite another provider into our community to service our ALS transfer needs in the event this situation continues to erode.
My appeal to Emporia City Commissioners is to fund salaries that will promote recruitment, retention and training of pre-hospital medical personnel and a continuation of full-time, Type I service for Lyon Co. EMS.
Second, this service needs to be equipped to provide safe, contemporary and efficient service to those with an emergency. This service includes, but is not limited to, equipment to serve our bariatric (obese) population.
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Posted by pizza (anonymous) on August 4, 2007 at 8:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Very interesting letter indeed. I have a couple of questions on that letter.
1. Is it not a City-County ambulance service? Why does she want the county to pick up the full tab?
2. Since she mentioned Fire Chief Woydziak I believe it was he who advocated the fire department getting out of the ambulance business and finding private operators to take over the local ambulance business. In fact that did happen and seemed to work reasonably well and the community did have EMT's. However, when Chief Woydziak left and a new fire chief was named he decided he wanted the ambulance business back. In that business many ambulance trips do not pay as much as it costs to make the run but the transfers from Emporia to Topeka or Wichita or wherever do pay rather well. The determination of who gets the call for the transfer is made by a person at the hospital. Eventually the private firms were receiving very few calls for transfers and the fire department began receiving more calls. Financially the private firms could not generate enough income to survive so they went out of business in favor of the new desires of the fire department. Now it seems it was not that good of a deal for the fire department either. I would hope that before approving additonal tax funds for this purpose the commissioners would investigate the history of how we arrived at where we are now and how to avoid further subsidizing a department that felt they could show a profit when they took back the ambulance service. Also the city should be given an invitation to share in the cost.
Posted by Doug (anonymous) on August 6, 2007 at 12:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Pizza, you are terribly misinformed. Yes the ambulance service is a City-County service but since the Cessna sales tax increase the County only pays for half of the cost of a new ambulance (no operating costs). The City and County are in the process of realigning that at this time. Chief Woydziak did not get rid of the ambulance service. At that time there were no Paramedics to take ALS transfers so a Nurse from NRH would have to accompany the ambulance. The private ambulance services at that time ran them selves out of business with low pay and long hours. The transfer services went out of business and by then EFD had Paramedics staffed so they started doing transfers again. EFD and NRH did not gang up on the private services although your version is cute, it is total fiction. You are probably one of the people that see an ambulance and assume the attendants are Paramedics. EMT's take a 600 hour course, Paramedics take a 2400 hour course and have to graduate with an associates degree. It's obvious our little community needs education on what their tax dollars are paying for but as long as everything runs smooth they just don't care!
Posted by glarson (Gwen Larson) on August 6, 2007 at 4 p.m. (Suggest removal)
During copy-editing, a change for clarity in the letter led to misinformation. Paula Taylor's original letter was written to Emporia city commissioners. It's next-to-last paragraph began, "My appeal to you..."
At the copy-editing stage, that was reworded to "My appeal to the Lyon County Commissioners..." This, of course, is incorrect.
This version on the Web site has been corrected. The Gazette apologizes for the error.
Gwen Larson
Managing Editor
Posted by food4thought (anonymous) on August 6, 2007 at 4:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The city pays paramedics terrible in Emporia that is why so many are leaving or would rather drive to Lawrence or Olathe to work. I would like to ask Paula Taylor why the ER at NRH does not employ paramedics if it did maybe more would stay. If the ER had paramedics they could take the transfers and leave the city for emergencies only. Many hospitals have went to paramedics in the ER. Also, alot of people have trouble with Paula Taylor DON at NRH being married to fire chief Jack Taylor. It seems like a conflict of interest when he can not fight for his ambulance crews. I have alot of friends that work for the city as paramedics and they state this is a HUGE problem....
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