New ambulance purchased to replace rapidly ailing unit

After a scare recently, where the City of Ritzville had only one operational ambulance for 10 days out of a two week period of time, hospital commissioners acted last Thursday to purchase a new ambulance. They voted unanimously in favor of purchasing a 2012 North Star ambulance from Braun Northwest, Inc., of Chehalis.

The unit costs about $118,000 including sales tax. Ronni Kinney gathered bids from three companies. The Braun Northwest had the middle estimate, with the low bid coming in at $115,000. In this case, the district is not required to take the low bidder, according to attorney Randy Stamper. As a result, the hospital district will likely receive the new ambulance much sooner since the company is based in Washington.

“Best case scenario, we could have it in four to six weeks,” said EMT Phil Bowman.

From Bowman’s perspective that is a good thing, considering the condition of a couple of ambulances used in the district.

“The last two weeks we had approximately 10 days we were down to one ambulance covering the entire north and east side of the county,” Bowman said. “Basically we had one ambulance covering everything but Othello.

“Lind’s ambulance has broke down plus they have manpower problems,” Bowman continued. “Washtucna is down to two people and they have full time jobs. So they have a tough time getting out the door. One of our ambulances (in Ritzville) was broke down and in the shop so we were running the legs off of one ambulance just to keep up with this entire end of the county. If we had had a bad day out on the freeway we would have been in bad shape.”

Bowman made a strong case for purchasing a new ambulance. In 2011, EMTs in Ritzville, Lind and Washtucna responded to 502 calls.

The two Ritzville ambulances handled 405 of those calls, including 59 runs to Lind and 10 to Washtucna when those EMT groups were unable to respond.

“To me it’s a no brainer that we need to upgrade the equipment,” Bowman said. “The two that we have are 2005 models. The chassis are exactly the same age but one of them is not aging well. Unit 964 is constantly broke down. The Lind ambulance is basically a money pit. What I’m guessing is the new ambulance stays here and of the other units would rotate to Lind.”

The North Star ambulance will also be the first four-wheel drive ambulance in the stable, something Bowman said is critical when minutes count.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to calls out on the freeway and we’ve had to go past four or five miles to find a turn around to come back,” Bowman said. “The fire trucks are all four-wheel drive they can cut across the median in most places. When seconds count, we’re minutes away.”

The North Star ambulance is constructed on a 2012 Ford F350 4x4 chassis.

The purchase of the ambulance was an easy decision when Adams County Treasurer Laura Danekas explained that the hospital district has significant resources on hand that have been collected from the local EMS levy.

She said the district has $204,605.35 in cash with an additional $102,578.49 in invested assets for a total available fund of $307,183.84.

During the discussion, the group addressed the lack of EMTs in Lind. P.J. Jacobsen, and EMT from Lind, said the association had a meeting recently and that up to seven have expressed an interest in taking the EMT course.

“We just need to set a date for starting a class in April,” she said. “We’re going to try to have the class in Lind and we’re going to open it up to Ritzville and Washtucna and anybody else. We’re going to the high school and see if any seniors want to take the class.”

A draw back is the class costs between $500 and $700 per student.

At this time, the plan is to require students to pay for the course in advance. The hospital district would then reimburse the expense after the student is certified and has served the district as an EMT for at least six months.