Ambulance deficit a nagging concern

Iola Administrator Carl Slaugh told Allen County commissioners Tuesday morning the city anticipates a $413,000 deficit in operation of countywide ambulance service.
Also, Slaugh said the deficit would be an annual concern.
Primary income for the service is $750,000, which the county guaranteed from charges for runs made in Iola, Humboldt and Moran. The guarantee was negotiated to ensure a definite source of income, without regard to how much is collected.
If run income exceeds the guarantee — an outcome that has been suggested by Terry Call, who does billing — the county will put the excess in reserve and use it to purchase ambulances. Ample reserves also should remove the need for the county to have a property tax levy for ambulances.
The reality that Slaugh and city council members face is that the service’s budget legally can’t be in arrears at year’s end, because of the state’s cash-basis law. Simply put, no governing body in the state, at any level, can have expenditures greater than revenue.
The consequence is that Iolans will be on the hook for whatever is needed to make the service solvent. Slaugh said he would discuss the projected shortfall with council members Monday evening, with the likely source of additional revenue coming in some form from residents, or through transfers from utility reserves.
Slaugh also said the deficit was not the fault of overtime, which has mounted in the first seven weeks of the year from a preponderance of emergency calls, rather ongoing operating expenses. On a single day when the ice storm hit in January, ambulances were dispatched to 13 traffic accidents, which had all five units in service.
Ryan Sell, who directs the service, said about $30,000 was spent on start-up costs, including purchase of 12 tires for three of the four ambulances transferred from county to city service. Balding tires were deemed unsafe, he said.
After searching tire sources, Sell said the city was able to buy the 12 tires for $1,400, “a really good price,” well below retail. Labor costs, including some difficulty in breaking wheels free, totaled about $200.

FROM JAN. 1 until Tuesday morning, ambulances had been dispatched 305 times from stations in Iola, Humboldt and Moran.
The primary Iola ambulance was sent out 157 times, the second unit 38 and a backup 5. Runs at Humboldt totaled 50, with 55 at Moran.
Each run involved a patient, although not all were transported, Sell said, noting that some runs were for such things as helping someone who had fallen or in a response that turned out not to be as severe as first thought.
“Things are going very well,” he added. “We’re moving people throughout the county,” with crews alternating among the three stations.
Training in firefighting techniques also is ongoing for the nine people who transferred from the county service.
“They’re about 75 percent through the initial phase,” Sell said. “I think some of them have been pleasantly surprised about how well they’ve adjusted” to the dual ambulance-fire role.
Two additional personnel are being sought to give the service full complement.
Responsibilities for transfers to Kansas City and Wichita hospitals are being tweaked to make time out of county as equitable as possible for crews from each of the three stations. To date, an Iola ambulance has made shorter transfers, such as taking patients with broken bones or other orthopedic problems to Labette Health in Parsons.
Sell said protocols outlining how crews respond to specific emergencies had been laid out and approved by the service’s medical director, Dr. Tim Spears.

COMMISSIONERS approved purchase of a super crew half-ton Ford pickup truck from Twin Motors Ford. Its bid of $29,950 was one of five.
With Commissioner Dick Works absent because of out-of-state travel delays, they put off a decision on a wheel loader for the landfill. Bids ranged from $112,000 to $162,950, with trade.