Work continues...

While work continues elsewhere, the Logan County Commissioners have suspended the regular weekly EMS task force meetings as they continue to meet with city officials from Sterling, as well as with commissioners from Morgan and Washington counties.

Work being done continues to center around a couple of ideas:  One being the notion of combining the EMS systems in all three counties as a regionalized approach under one organization; and the other is further exploring the interest of the City of Sterling in participating in a fire-based EMS system of some sort.

There are many questions yet to ask and a lot of details to sort out with officials under both proposals, but the commissioners are committed to the strong forward momentum and hope to be better prepared to make sound decisions on a direction in the near future.  At that point, the task force can be re-activated to provide the necessary expertise and support as operational plans are built.

In the mean time, if community members or response partners have questions or suggestions for consideration, those can be directed to the Logan County Commissioners office at 970-522-0888.

Once the task force resumes activities, we'll be utilizing this blog heavily again.  Until then, we thank you for your interest and for the great exchange of ideas we've had here so far!

The multi-county concept...

At the task force meeting on Feb 3^rd, we were joined by two commissioners and the EMS director from Morgan County.  As many of you may have read in the paper, Morgan County Ambulance is going through some difficult financial times right now for many of the same reasons as we’re seeing here in our own county. 

The concept of a multi-county EMS authority was discussed briefly and met with a good deal of interest from both counties (Washington County may also be interested) as well as from the task force.  Because of the flexibility that can be built into the creation and design of an authority under state statute, it is plausible that Logan County could partner with one or more other counties to create a regionalized EMS system.

The are many, many details which would need to be thought through before this option could float up as a viable solution.  However, just off the top there could be the potential to save money just through the economy of scale – combining efforts, resources and costs across two or three counties rather than each bearing the full burden on their own.

Of course, each participating county would still have ambulances and staff stationed there, they would simply all be managed under one budget through the multi-county authority.  Ambulances and crews could be rotated from point to point in order to fill in during busy times or during shortages caused by vacations or illness, or to cover inter-facility transports.

By streamlining the billing process, human resources, management, supply ordering, training, maintenance, etc., and merging those savings along with the income from the call volume of each of the counties combined, it ‘may’ be possible to operate this type of system without seeking as much support from the taxpayers.

Obviously the task force still has some work to do in terms of determining what is best for our particular situation, but because this multi-county concept is new and fresh we wanted to solicit your thoughts and ideas.

You can read more about this meeting on the Journal-Advocate website at:

http://www.journal-advocate.com/ci_17294415?IADID=Search-www.journal-advocate.com-www.journal-advocate.com  (but come back here to comment, please!).

Before posting, please take a moment to look at the “Posting Tips” and “Comment Policy” sections.  Lets try to keep the conversation in this thread focused solely on this concept.

Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you!

The big question...

A lot of you are probably wondering why the topic of ambulance service is still being reviewed here in Logan County.  Fair question.  The answer though lies in a number of very complex issues that are all being carefully examined by a multi-disciplinary task force that has been meeting weekly since September of 2010.

To get down to the most simple of answers to that question though; the biggest issue really centers around the ability to financially sustain the current level of service being provided by Life Care Ambulance.  The call volume and the reimbursement and collection rates on billings are just such that it has grown increasingly difficult for a private company to afford to continue to do business using this model.  Reimbursement rates from Medicare and insurance have gone down, and its likely that trend will continue – and this situation only continues to make things worse for EMS providers across the country – especially small private providers like we have here in Logan County (Sterling is the smallest community in Colorado with this type of system in place).  In order for private ambulance services to be profitable, they must run a significantly higher number of calls than what is possible in a rural area.  Even the very largest and most financially sound private EMS companies only have a 2-3% profit margin.

The current system has been examined now on three different occasions:  First, with the 2009 campaign to join EMS with the Sterling Fire Department to create a separate organization that would manage both services.  The second review came a year ago as a group of experts were brought together from around the state through the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, to do an independent review and assessment of the current system – their report was finalized last summer.  And finally, the current task force has thoroughly reviewed both of the first two efforts, as well as separately examining the current system in comparison with others across Colorado.  It is universally agreed among task force members that a change is necessary.

The current task force is made up of people who have a great deal of respect for each other and who are all working towards coming up with the most sensible solution for everyone in the county.  There are 14 voting members and a number of other folks who attend to provide their expertise and insight.  Agencies represented include Life Care Ambulance, Sterling Regional MedCenter, Logan County and City of Sterling, rural fire protection districts (Sterling, Fleming, Crook, Peetz, Merino), Logan County Office of Emergency Management, Sterling Fire Department, Northeast Colorado Health Department and the Northeast RETAC (Regional EMS/Trauma Advisory Council).

At this point, the task force is still weighing various options and methods for providing the best service possible, as well as a number of different funding options with possibilities that include creating a self-sustaining organization, up to potential support from the taxpayers if needed, by means of either a sales tax or property tax.

At a recent meeting, the current owner of Life Care Ambulance made a motion that the task force look at forming a governmental authority – permitted under state statute and established through written agreements between two or more governments.  The nature of the authority is what the group is still working on, with options on the table such as operating as a stand-alone EMS organization, combining the Sterling Fire Dept and EMS into one agency, or even the possibility of combining with adjacent counties to form a regionalized EMS service.

No matter how you slice it this undertaking is a difficult chore, but it is important for the citizens to know that while the members might come into this from different perspectives with differing ideas and concerns, all of the issues are being carefully weighed and debated and everyone is sincerely focused on trying to make the most sound decisions as we move forward.  Our priority is to ensure a system is in place that will be most beneficial to the citizens when a crisis arises and they are in need of emergency care.

The task force genuinely thanks you for your interest in this important topic!  Please make sure to check back each week for new notes on our progress as well as new meeting minutes (tab located at the top of the page).  In the mean time, we are absolutely interested in your thoughts and questions, so feel free to post them here and we will work on getting you answers as swiftly as possible (see 'Comment Policy' to the right). 

Dont forget to take a look at the comments that others have posted below for additional information -- and try to look through the responses from the task force before making additional posts in case your questions might have already been answered.  We definitely want a free and open exchange of ideas, but we also dont want a crazy volume of traffic that becomes so cumbersome that viewers give up on following the blog.

Thank you!