Dear editor,
We are concerned about the recently signed ambulance contract with AMR.
Unless a solution can be found we will have no ambulance transfer capabilities as of 8/1/2023. There is an average of 60-70 transfers out of the ACRH ER per month.
There were 438 ground transfers which were transported by Iola EMS and 42 transported by air (fixed wing and helicopter) from ACRH ER in 2022.
These numbers do not include transfers which were transported by other ambulance services. These include but are not limited to Anderson County EMS, Neosho County EMS, Children’s Mercy Hospital (or any other hospital EMS system), law enforcement, mental health and others.
ACRH also transfers from the floor when patients require higher levels of care. These transfers are not included in the above statistics. These statistics also do not include ambulance transfers to other hospital facilities directly from nursing homes and/or doctor’s offices.
Allen County Regional Hospital (ACRH) is a critical access hospital that provides excellent medical services.
ACRH does not have the ability to care for all types of medical problems. Some patients will require transfers to hospitals where a higher level of care can be delivered. Since ACRH is a critical access hospital, acute patients can only be treated as an in-patient for a maximum of 96 hours on average before being discharged, transferred to swing bed, or transferred to another facility.
A crucial part of medical care is ambulance response time and patient transfers.
A majority of the patient transfers could be staffed by a BLS (basic life support) manned ambulance. An ALS (advanced life support) staffed ambulance is needed for more difficult patient transfers. An air transfer (fixed wing or helicopter) is expensive and should be utilized for the most critical patients. Air transfer is dependent on the weather and cannot be utilized at times. Insurance companies will only pay for emergent air transfers. Patients could be responsible for a very expensive air transfer bill.
According to the Iola Register article, AMR will not have a Transfer Agreement in place after 8/1/2023 for any ambulance transfers from our local hospital.
AMR will be limited to transporting patients to the local hospital.
Our concern: That there is a significant number of transfers from Allen County which are not included in the AMR contract. There appears to be increased costs with decreased services with the recently signed AMR contract.
We are wondering whether the Iola City Council and the Allen County Commissioners have considered a mediator to help work through the ambulance issues. Ambulance services are vital to patients. Sometimes it is a matter of life or death, and a quick response time is of the essence.
Dr. Wesley and Lori Stone,
