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from http://shreveporttimes.com
Fire chiefs weigh tax for DeSoto ambulances - 06/19/00 - By Vickie Welborn - The Times Mansfield Bureau
MANSFIELD -- Some DeSoto Parish volunteer fire chiefs want to bring expanded ambulance coverage to the parish. Their proposal, which has been studied for almost a year, will require voter approval of a tax proposition to subsidize a private ambulance company. The fire chiefs went public with their plan last week as they met informally with parish police jurors. On Wednesday, they will meet with jurors again in a special session to decide if they have enough time to submit the necessary resolutions to call a November election.
"All of the fire chiefs are behind this," DeSoto Fire District 1 Chief Jack Canton said. "We want to ask for 5 mills, but not use but 3 of it." Officials estimate 5 mills will generate about $850,000 annually. Canton believes it will take at least $500,000 to buy and staff three ambulances in the parish.
DeSoto residents currently rely on Shreveport-based Balentine Ambulance Service for emergency and nonemergency transports. It's the third company to serve the parish in as many years. Canton said the suggestion for a parishwide ambulance service is not a reflection on Balentine's personnel. "I'm tickled to death they're here. ... But we're wanting something better for our people. We want DeSoto Parish people to be within 10 to 15 minutes of an ambulance." At times, it can take 25 minutes to more than an hour to get an ambulance to some locations in the parish, he said. There also is concern that ambulance services such as Balentine will be forced to pull out of rural parishes because of state cuts in Medicaid reimbursements.
Carl McBeath, Balentine's operations manager, said there are no immediate plans for Balentine to leave DeSoto. However, its future is not a certainty. "We are staying. But we are evaluating that on a daily basis. We have to see what happens with the cuts. And we also have to look at it from a business end," McBeath said. At least one Balentine ambulance is stationed in Mansfield daily. A second sits on the parish line near Stonewall as back-up, McBeath said. But there have been times when as many as five ambulances have made calls throughout the parish in a day's time. "Ninety percent of the time, two ambulances will do. But 10 percent of the time, it will bite you. ... It's tough down there. An ambulance cannot always be there in 5 minutes," McBeath said.
Another drawback cited by DeSoto Fire District 8 Chief David Manning is the amount of service offered by Balentine. "It's not enough," he said. Manning was referring to Balentine's practice of staffing its ambulances with emergency medical technicians rather than paramedics. District 8 has eight paid EMTs on staff who, for the past three months, have been rolling to emergency medical calls within its district. McBeath welcomes that assistance. "We can always use extra help," he said.
As for the lack of paramedics, McBeath said there is a shortage locally of trained paramedics. He's recently lost a number of employees to better-paying municipal fire departments. To fill the gap, Balentine is conducting an in-house paramedic course for 17 students.
Training and paying highly trained emergency responders is the most costly aspect of the ambulance business, McBeath said. "It's not the ambulance. It's because you're having to pay staff to sit and wait on calls. You have to pay them whether they get any calls or not."
Depending on the training level of the attendant and miles traveled to a call, an ambulance transport can cost an individual $400 to $600, McBeath said. He estimates it takes at least five calls a day to cover the cost of an ambulance and its staff. In DeSoto, the average number of calls is four a day. "Sometimes it's one. Other days, there are six to eight. ... Low volume. That's the reason no one can stay there. But the reason we've stayed is the people there need the ambulance service."
McBeath said Balentine is interested in submitting a bid if the Police Jury pursues a parishwide tax to subsidize an ambulance service. "Right now, we get no subsidy whatsoever."
District 8 may throw another wrinkle into the mix by proposing a tax. Manning said the district is in full support of the parishwide effort. However, if it doesn't work out, then District 8 may propose a tax to fund an ambulance service. "We would have a minimum of two ambulances and hire employees to serve within the district," Manning said.
That proposition may hinder private company service to the remainder of the parish, McBeath said. "That would take about 75 percent of the parish. We would really have to back up and re-evaluate what we do there."
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File Created - 19 June 2000