By Greg Cima
The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois)
Copyright 2006 The Pantagraph
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
Ambulance services in the eastern part of McLean County are upgrading to more advanced care levels by hiring full-time paramedics for emergency transports.
And one ambulance service administrator said the increase already has cut his area’s response time in half.
Mark Doty, administrator for LeRoy Emergency Ambulance Service, said the service will have a paramedic on duty at all times starting at 6 a.m. Monday, providing advanced life support (ALS) care on emergency calls. The service has two ambulances: The second will continue to be staffed at intermediate EMT level.
“Intermediate life support is care that is above the bottom level, which is basic,” Doty said. “It provides a few medications and procedures that are life-saving beyond a basic level. And the paramedic level performs most of the life-saving procedures and carries most of the advanced life support medications that would be used in an emergency department.”
Jim Kern, president of the Eastern McLean County Ambulance Association, said his service has had paramedics on-duty since October 15, and the response times for emergency calls have dropped from about 6 1/2 minutes to about three minutes.
“All in all, the people are getting a higher-level of care as fast or faster than before,” Kern said.
Doty said the change comes at an increase in cost of about $34,000 yearly for his ambulance service, with some of the cost defrayed because some part time staff members will work fewer hours.
The charge for LeRoy to transport a patient will jump by $150, to $500 for people in-district and to $600 for people out-of- district, Doty said. Mileage will go up from $7 to $11 per mile, he said.
Doty said the change are needed to cover fuel and operation costs, and do not affect Medicare customers.
Kern said his agency had two ambulances -- one in Colfax and Saybrook -- and dropped the one in Saybrook. But he said the ambulance association helped Saybrook firefighters receive first aid training so that they can be first-responders in medical emergencies.
The eastern county ambulance association’s fees have not changed with the change in services, Kern added.
Keith Dutton, CEO of Lifeline Mobile Medics, said the company will reduce by one per shift the number of intercept, or chase, vehicles starting Sunday because of lower-than-anticipated call volume and because of the two agencies’ decisions to upgrade to ALS service. Lifeline currently has one ambulance on duty on each shift, with four chase vehicles during the day and two at night.
The intercept vehicles are SUVs driven by paramedics who can board other departments’ ambulances and provide advanced care when needed.
Lifeline’s long-term plan is to maintain wheelchair transportation and non-critical medical transportation, Dutton said. The ALS service is planned to be phased out by Jan. 1, 2009.
But some changes in municipal agencies could affect the number of calls Lifeline receives before that time. Dutton said Bloomington’s fire department is currently hiring firefighter paramedics, and Normal just began advertising to hire firefighter paramedics and will start a paramedic class at Heartland Community College in January.
“Illinois law will allow those two fire departments to put paramedic chase vehicles on the road for themselves while they build up to have enough paramedics to staff all the ambulances,” Dutton said. “So I would probably see the next phase of changes happening sometime next summer or next fall, from Bloomington probably first.”