Washington County approves BLS plan

The Washington County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in favor of Ambulance Director Jeremy Peck’s plan to add a Basic Life Support (BLS) crew to its shift rotation at a regular meeting Tuesday morning.

“I think this is something that’s going to allow us to run some transfers, bring in some revenues, and also put another truck on the street,” Peck said. “I personally feel it’s a win-win for everybody in the county and the service itself as well.”

Peck’s plan adds the a shift to the rotation for a BLS crew on top of existing ambulance schedules. The crew would respond to some emergency calls despite the lack of a paramedic on board, but Peck said most of its revenue would come from transfers.

“The one thing that I want to stress with that statement is, we’re not here to become a transfer service,” he said. “We have a duty and obligation to our citizens that when there’s an emergency, we go, and I will always focus on emergency as my number one. This is just a good way to bring more people in, to have more options when we need staffing.”

Peck defended the move as a way to ensure sustainable revenue.

“It also just helps the revenue in the end, and that’s what we’re going for, is to try to get as close to no subsidy as what we can get,” he said. “If we can provide EMS in this county for little to close to nothing, then that’s the goal.”

Board Member Marcus Fedler agreed.

“That’s the whole purpose behind why I support this,” he said. “I want our county to have qualified, exceptional staff … and then the next step is, let’s make it pay for itself.”

Peck brought a new cost estimate to the board that was lower than last meeting’s.

“The idea from last week of worst-case scenario, I was asked to clean that up to make it a more realistic scenario,” he said. “I took the crew pay and dropped it down to a Level 4 EMT instead of the Level 5 at time-and-a-half … that doesn’t give me much wiggle room, but it’s also more realistic.”

Board Chair Richard Young said the new projections resolved his worries about an inflated budgetary demand.

“My concern was … that if we budget for that, that money has to come from somewhere,” he said. “It has to come out of the general fund, so that affects all the departments. So we have to be careful when we’re doing this stuff to give as close as possible to true figures.”

As far as a timeline, Peck said he anticipated the new crew hitting the road in the next month or two.

“Right now we have a hiring process out, we’re receiving applications,” he said. “As soon as we get a crew put together and a schedule put together for them, I’d like to see it going by the middle of December to the first of the year at the latest.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com