CARE, ambulance service agency make arguments to judge

FAIRFIELD — The Jefferson County Ambulance Service Agency and its ambulance provider, CARE Ambulance, were in court Tuesday making arguments about whether CARE should be forced to fulfill its contract with the agency.

Attorneys from the two sides appeared before District Judge Myron Gookin at the Jefferson County Courthouse during an injunctive hearing. Attorneys from the service agency said CARE Ambulance is violating the three-year contract the two parties signed in 2020 requiring CARE to provide two full-time ambulances in Jefferson County, each staffed with a paramedic. CARE’s attorney and its owner, Bob Libby, argued to Judge Gookin that fulfilling the contract was impossible because there are no paramedics available to staff two full-time ambulances.

During the 40-minute hearing, each side called one witness to testify. Attorneys from the ambulance service agency called Staci Worley to testify. Worley is the emergency room services and education director at the Jefferson County Health Center. She told the court that most of the ambulance rides from JCHC require a paramedic because only paramedics can administer medicine or an IV, and most rides need those services.

Ambulances with a paramedic on board qualify as “Advanced Life Support” (ALS) since medicine can be given to the patient, while those without a paramedic are known as “Basic Life Support,” and are staffed by EMTs, who can perform first aid but not administer medicine.

Worley said it was “fairly common” for JCHC to need two ALS ambulances for transport.

CARE was represented during the hearing by Steven Ort of New London, who questioned Worley on cross examination. He asked her if paramedics are in short supply, and she said yes.

“How is CARE supposed to hire paramedics who are not available?” Ort asked.

“I don’t have an answer to that,” Worley replied.

Ort asked Worley is she was dissatisfied with CARE’s services, and she said no. He asked if she thought that CARE was intentionally denying services, and she said she didn’t think so.

After Worley finished her testimony, Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding, one of three attorneys representing the service agency, told Gookin that his side had no issues with CARE’s services, only with its decision to break the contract requiring two full-time ambulances.

“Emails from CARE show they’ve relied on traveling paramedics, and they have chosen to stop using them,” Moulding said. “This presents a danger to the residents of the county.”

CARE officials informed the service agency in December that it can now only staff one full-time ambulance and another ambulance that runs between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Vanessa Willman, an attorney representing JCHC, said that transporting a patient to another hospital could leave Jefferson County without an ambulance for “hours,” which is not safe, she said.

“This is a life or death situation,” Willman argued. “CARE must be held to the contract as it was drafted.”

Ort called Bob Libby to testify on behalf of CARE. Libby said he is struggling to find paramedics both in Fairfield and in Iowa City, where his business is based.

“There’s nobody out there,” Libby said. “With COVID, a lot of people left.”

Libby said COVID is the reason CARE is having difficulty complying with the contract.

“This is beyond our control,” he said. “None of us want this. We all want to make it work.”

Fairfield City Attorney John Morrissey, the other attorney from the service agency’s side, asked Libby what he could do to fully staff two ALS ambulances. Libby said he only has two full-time paramedics left to serve Jefferson County as of this week. He and his director of operations, Chris Bodenstadt, are even traveling from Iowa City to cover shifts in Fairfield, and it’s still not enough.

“I have paramedics working 120 hours a week, which is not good for anybody,” Libby said.

Moulding asked Libby if he could simply extend the contract of the traveling paramedics he has employed. Libby said he could not because those paramedics signed other contracts that had to meet.

Attorneys from the service agency said they were willing to negotiate with CARE, but were insistent that CARE fulfill the contract during the negotiations. Ort argued that Gookin should consider forces beyond CARE’s control, such as the labor shortage and COVID, as he ponders his ruling.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com