With Allen County 90 days away from launching its newest iteration of ambulance service, two questions remain:
1. Who will handle transfers from Allen County Regional Hospital to other medical facilities?
2. How will the county cover what could be a sizable budget deficit now that it will no longer receive revenue for its emergency medical services?
Commissioners acknowledge those issues are still to be addressed after they voted earlier this month to enter a five-year contract with American Medical Response (AMR) to provide countywide Emergency Medical Services (EMS) starting Aug. 1.
“We’re halfway there,” Commissioner Jerry Daniels told the Register, noting the focus up to now has been on the ambulance calls.
“We wanted to be sure on Aug. 1, everybody has that ambulance service,” Commissioner David Lee said, “to get you from your home or wherever to the hospital. Once we got that knocked out, now we can worry about the piece that gets you from the hospital to wherever you’ve got to go.”
The county accepted the AMR deal after Iola — which has operated the countywide ambulance service for the past 10 years — notified the county in January it was terminating its contract on July
31, with the hopes of negotiating a new deal, calling the existing contract “untenable.”
The city’s proposal failed to gain any traction, however, because of Iola’s desire to go from an ALS (Advanced Life Support) to BLS (Basic Life Support) system.
The key difference between the two tiers is whether an ambulance crew has a paramedic on board, capable of providing more advanced treatment, such as administering medication intravenously or providing medication. Emergency medical technicians are not licensed to offer such services.
The AMR deal will ensure staffing for two ALS-certified ambulances in Allen County at all times, with another ALS-equipped quick response vehicle shared between Allen and Linn County.
The city’s proposal called for the lower tier (BLS) with ALS-certified personnel available in a support vehicle if needed.
“We had two options,” Commissioner Lee said. “We didn’t have a lot of people banging on the door” to offer a contract. “The City of Iola provided that service to the county. And I don’t think anybody can complain about the quality of service they’ve provided. But our concern is with them going to BLS.”
“Their offer said they would provide some ALS ‘most of the time,’ but the city’s contract proposal still called for almost $2 million for BLS service,” Daniels said. 
Additionally, Daniels pointed to Iola’s manpower shortage of ambulance personnel, which prompted the city to take the unusual step late last fall of attempting to split its fire and EMS staffs in an attempt to attract more employees. However, those attempts have yet to bear fruit, with staffing shortages still the norm.
“That’s not necessarily the city’s fault,” Daniels said. “It’s like that across the country.”
