TOWER- Greenwood Township Board Chair John Bassing spent time on the hot seat during a Tower Ambulance Commission meeting that started late and ended early as a result of ambulance calls requiring response by ambulance supervisor Dena Suihkonen.
Frank Sherman, the newly appointed Eagles Nest representative to the commission, had a series of questions for Bassing on why Greenwood was no longer participating in the ambulance subsidy.
“My understanding is that this group is just to raise money for ambulance purchases,” he said. “But now some groups aren’t contributing.”
Bassing said the refusal to include the universal indemnification clause was one reason, claiming that the clause is “used all over.”
The city had put the indemnification in the contract in a previous year, but after consultation with their own attorney, had declined the wording from Greenwood, and suggested their own indemnification clause, that would not have Tower be responsible in the case of negligence of other township employees, who serve as first responders.
“Why do you think it is okay to freeload?” Sherman asked Bassing. “What is the possible reason not to contribute to a new ambulance?”
Bassing said their attorney said they would be “crazy” to sign the subsidy agreement without the indemnification clause. Bassing also noted that Tower had breached the contract terms, by failing to pay for transfer miles and producing a business plan for the service later than they had originally promised.
“Why do we want to do business with people who breached their contract?” Bassing said. “They don’t pay their transfer miles [on time].” The city has struggled to pay its staffing costs since adopting a high-wage paid on-call system back in 2018 and the city has had to delay transfer mile payments to the ambulance replacement fund due in lieu of making payroll.
Sherman asked how that breach was different from Greenwood’s refusal to pay their subsidy amount?
“We are not obligated,” Bassing said. “This is a freewill offering, a donation. This is not a commitment on our part.”
Bassing said that Greenwood is requesting faster response times, a higher level of service, and is not interesting in running an ambulance department.
“We want an increase in one of those three things,” Bassing said. “Part-time ALS would be an improvement. That is what we want the city of Tower to do,” he said. “We are willing to subsidize that.”
Sherman noted that the ambulance service is interested in running a quality Basic Life Support (BLS) service.
“It’s a business,” said Bassing.
“No,” said Suihkonen, “it’s a public service.”
Jeff Damm, the representative from Fortune Bay and a retired Virginia paramedic, said that Virginia will respond immediately, before getting a call-out, to any call in the Tower service area it feels requires ALS. The Virginia Ambulance Service area extends to just south of the former Black Bear Café.
“BLS does the assessment, can put in IVs, can do an intubation if necessary. By the time they are ready to transport, the ALS is there. We see this all the time at Fortune Bay,” Damm said. “It’s an amazing situation we have up here. It’s incredible.”
Damm said to add ALS to the Tower service would involve a large increase in staffing costs, and that the number of ALS-type calls was not that high.
In the first six months of 2023, TAAS has responded to 216 emergency calls, and 21 involved ALS intercept and two required air medical intercept, an average of less than four ALS-involved calls per month.
“You are saying those extra calls are not important?” Bassing asked.
Damm said adding ALS to Tower would not cut as much time as people think.
“We have a perfect system,” Damm said.
“It is not perfect,” said Bassing.
Bassing noted when he had his own medical emergency that required intubation, his daughter told his wife to drive him immediately to the Cook Hospital, because the ambulance wouldn’t get there in time.
“But ALS coming from Tower would have been too late, also,” Suihkonen said.
“It’s not the exact situation for everybody,” Bassing said. “We have a lot of old people in Greenwood who want to improve the service.”
Damm noted that Greenwood could opt to hire their own paramedic.
“But we would still have to wait for BLS to come,” Bassing said. “We haven’t determined what we want to do.”
“Tower is already subsidizing the ambulance,” said Tower representative Bobby Anderson. “That money could be fixing our streets. We don’t have any more money to pay for ALS staff.”
“That’s why I’d like you to put out a RFP,” responded Bassing.
Greenwood has previously asked the city to put out a request for proposals to bring in a private ambulance service, but others with expertise in the field— including a township-commissioned study by McGrath Consulting— have informed Greenwood officials that a private ambulance operation is unlikely to be interested in serving the Tower coverage area.
“The city of Tower is not interested in putting out an RFP,” said Suihkonen, who added that Greenwood was now asking other townships to help subsidize the cost of staffing a paramedic.
The discussion ended when Suihkonen was needed to respond to an ambulance call in Greenwood.
Transfer mileage fee
Suihkonen’s departure from the meeting left the discussion on the transfer mileage fee for the next commission meeting. But Suihkonen did address the issue briefly at the beginning of the meeting, noting that the Tower Ambulance Service pays for all expenses, other than ambulance replacement.
“You guys donate to pay for an ambulance,” she said. “That is it. We pay insurance, every oil change. We are paying to use the rig, and without transfers we won’t be able to keep going.”
The ambulance subsidy contract currently states the city must reimburse the ambulance subsidy account $1.66 for each mile driven on an ambulance transfer call. The city has had trouble keeping these payments current while keeping enough funds in the ambulance account to meet payroll and other essential expenses.
“This is essentially a tax on something that belongs to us,” Suihkonen said. “We really need to talk about it. That $1.66 is taken straight out of our operating funds,” she said.
Suihkonen said the service currently is staffed with “great people”, but the attitude of some in the wider community towards them made it hard to keep up morale.