EMS planning for short-term and long-term ambulance needs

With a meeting to discuss the purchase of a new ambulance just hours away, the Putnam County EMS reserve ambulance seemed to have a message for county decision makers.

I give up.

On Thursday, EMS Chief Kelly Russ delivered the news to the Putnam County Commissioners that the department’s reserve ambulance had caught fire that morning, shortly after returning to station from a run.

This comes in addition to the news earlier in the week that one of the three front-line ambulances goes through front tires every six to eight weeks.

The message was clear enough: Putnam County EMS needs a new vehicle.

It just so happened that earlier in the week the Commissioners had added ambulance replacement to the agenda of a Thursday afternoon meeting, so the news of fire was only the beginning of Russ’s presentation.

During their last regular meeting, the Commissioners had received three bids for ambulance replacement, with Fire Service Inc. submitting the low bid of $208,459 for a new Ford E-450 Type 3 ambulance.

On Thursday, Russ gave an updated price of $188,920, as she had asked Fire Service, as well as higher bidders Siddons-Martin Emergency Group and PL Custom Emergency Vehicle, to resubmit their bids with the removal of a power loading feature.

Each estimate came in about $20,000 lower than the original.

While much discussion went into the decision, Commissioner Tom Helmer ultimately boiled it down to its essential point.

“We don’t have a choice right now,” Helmer said, “especially with the one catching fire this morning.”

He made the motion to purchase the ambulance from Fire Service Inc., David Berry seconding the motion.

Rick Woodall joined the others in making the decision unanimous.

Far from being a one-off decision, though, the Commissioners had asked Russ at their earlier meeting to present a long-term ambulance replacement plan to show how she plans to keep the fleet up to date while also living within budget.

Russ presented a 10-year plan for the EMS capital replacement plan, which is allotted $95,000 annually. In it, she outlined the plan to lease a new ambulance every two years while also allowing for other capital costs such as monitors and advanced life support chase vehicles.

At no point in the plan does the remaining budget — which could allow for additional unexpected costs — dip below $24,000, and in one year it is as high as $93,000.

One option that could change the numbers but also save the county some money is to make the first payment shortly after getting the new vehicles, rather than waiting a year. Woodall asked about this option and Fire Service representative Jack Emshwiller said he believed it could be accommodated.

While costs are certain to change in the coming years, the commissioners seemed satisfied with the plan, as well as Russ’s plan to switch from a truck chassis (Type 1) on ambulances to a van chassis (Type 3), while maintaining the box body.

“It’s going to save us overall on just maintenance costs in general,” Russ said. “They will survive these country roads. They’re fine. Tire replacement and the fuel cost will go down.”

Russ also answered questions about maintenance on the current fleet, saying that besides the higher cost of maintaining the Type 1 units, most major costs have been electrical, due to some poor in-house work from a former employee of Operation Life.

“So far, everything major that has happened has been due to bad wiring jobs,” Russ said.

While the first three ambulance purchases will include purchasing a new boxes, the following rounds will come at some savings, with Emshwiller saying the county will likely be able to remount each box twice.

He estimated this will come at a savings of $60,000-$70,000 on future purchases.

The news is also good in the shorter term as well.

Putnam County will be able to take possession of an ambulance that is already in production, rather than a new build that would take until October or November.

Emshwiller said, instead, the new ambulance should be shipped by the second week of April.

Until then, the county has three working ambulances but no backup. Russ said she was working with Morgan County EMS, which may be able to loan Putnam County a reserve for the coming weeks.

This would keep three ambulances running at all times, even when one is in the shop, as was the case Thursday when the reserve caught fire.

Should that plan come to pass, the county would have to sign a memorandum of understanding with Morgan County EMS on the use of the ambulance.