LEGISLATURE STUFF Studying the Study

CATSKILL - Something has to change about providing emergency medical services, according to Greene County Legislature chairman Patrick Linger.

The million dollar question is - will it? - as lawmakers and other members of a special “Ambulance System Policy Group” prepare for an October 9 talk about a hot-off-the-presses study on the condition of local rescue service.

It will be the first formal conversation involving the Policy Group, taking place at the county Emergency Services Center in Cairo.

The session is open to the public with the Policy Group also including the supervisors from six towns, area medical professionals and a representative from Fitch & Associates.

Fitch & Associates was hired by the county to conduct the independent study after an ardent appeal from mountaintop government leaders to 

address worsening issues within ambulance response and transport.

Lawmakers set aside $100,000 for the report which arrived, last month, containing a big-picture view of the current system and four recommendations for possible change.

Many concerns have been expressed about the current system which relies heavily on the same people working for multiple ambulance units, accumulating as many as 70 to 80 hours in one week.

While not critical of EMS personnel, county administrator Shaun Groden, who is also part of the Policy Group says, “I don’t want to be the person having a heart attack when the EMT or medic showing up is in their eightieth hour on the job.”

Worries have likewise been voiced about the dwindling number of people entering the EMS field due to a lack of good pay and benefits.

Those everyday realities are causing an increasing financial burden for local municipalities, keeping crews at the ready and on the road.

The wish is the fresh study will result in a cohesion that has heretofore not existed between the various units spread around the county.

“This is important,” Linger said in a phone interview about the upcoming meeting. “I hope all the leaders of the EMS community come out.

“It is not okay, this time, to do nothing,” Linger said, referring to a similar study performed a decade ago by a special local Task Force which recommended the formation of a single, countywide system.

Ultimately, the study wound up in the round file as key agencies declined to commit to the plan, revealing a mindset of separate individuality that many believe must go the way of the dinosaur.

“I don’t care what the eventual makeup is, we have a task to do,” Linger says. “We spent $100,000 because we were asked to. It was foolish to waste it last time and it would be foolish to waste it this time.”

The study, in its “Pathway Forward” section, lists four recommendations:

—Option Zero…support the status quo through immediate no-cost and low-cost improvements and process changes.

—Option One…stronger system coordination. In this option, Greene County would take steps to increase and strengthen overall system coordination.

—Option Two…establish a Single Provider System with coordinated districts. This proposed strategy outlines a significant improvement opportunity considering geographical constraints and local expectations.

It involves the establishment of separate EMS districts under a unified EMS agency that would oversee operations. This approach promotes system-wide improvement with increased levels of coordination while providing system support through a single provider.

—Option Three…establish a single provider unified county system. Ultimately, a single-provider system offers the most affordable and efficient option to maintain acceptable system performance with the least tax burden.

While expressing optimism about the possibilities, Linger was discouraged that ambulance agencies in the towns of Greenville and Durham did not provide requested information, as noted within the study.

Their refusal to participate leaves the study factually less than complete (due to no fault of the consultant) and could be a bad omen.

“It is apparently a territorial thing for them but I think they owe it to the taxpayers of Greene County to give that information,” Linger says.

“We, in the legislature, are coming at this from a different perspective. We believe this service should be available to everyone, equally, across the county.

“The scuttlebutt I hear in the street about the consultant’s report tells me some people in the EMS community have not even read the report.

“So the first thing I will be looking for [at the October 9 meeting] is seeing how any people have actually read the proposals,” Linger says.

The writing seems to be on the wall in emergency services with automatic mutual aid being dispatched for volunteer firefighting calls.

“Nobody has enough people,” Linger says. “It isn’t about a lack of professionalism. Young people just aren’t getting involved.

“We have a strong legislature that understands the value of a good EMS system. We’ll see how strong the legislature has to be in all this.

“We would prefer not to lay down the law,” going with Option Three in the report, creating a countywide entity whether popularly accepted or not.

“But we have no hospital in Greene County,” Linger says. “We have to find a sustainable solution to this problem. It isn’t simply going to go away.”