Hospital removes unutilized asset from Lind

During the Jan. 27 meeting of the Lind Town Council East Adams Rural Healthcare CEO/CFO Gary Bostrom; Hospital Commissioners Jerry Snider and Ross Heimbigner; and EMT Coordinator Roni Kinney met with council members to discuss the Lind ambulance.

Currently the Lind ambulance is in Ritzville for repairs and the hospital district is considering permanently removing it from the town because there is no crew in the town to respond to calls.

Even with the ambulance sitting idle, the maintenance costs have continued for the district.

In 2011 the ambulance made 39 runs at a total expense of $3,886.74 to the district. In 2013, there were 48 calls from within the city limits at nearly the same expense.

In 2014 the ambulance made no runs and cost $2,731 for insurance and for the lease on the building to house it. Bostrom also estimated the cost to repair the ambulance to be approximately $1,500 for a new water pump, a new fuel pump and a tune up.

This estimate, however, did not include the labor.

Kinney also informed council and community members present the ambulance was too small to allow EMTs enough room to treat patients in transit with ease.

Before permanently removing the ambulance, the hospital district looked to the town and community for feedback.

The vehicle was purchased with donations from community members and then turned over to the hospital for operation in the Lind area. Bostrom asked the Council what they would like to see done with the vehicle, remarking that once it was repaired it could be a good maintenance truck.

Mayor Jamie Schmunk asked the council for their remarks about what should be done.

Council and community members were concerned about the cost of repairing the ambulance. There was some discussion about having the town employees do some of the work to repair the vehicle.

Bostrom suggested the town have one of its employees look at the ambulance to see if it was something they could fix and use within the town as a maintenance vehicle.

The council decided they would make a decision regarding the ambulance at their next meeting after having time to weigh their options and gather input from the community.

If there were ever enough EMTs in the town of Lind the hospital district has another ambulance, like the ones used in Ritzville and Washtucna, that could potentially be stationed in Lind to replace the old one, Kinney said.

She added the newer ambulance would fit in the same location as the old one and offered a better working space for EMTs.

In order to run an ambulance it needs two EMTs on board. Currently there is one licensed EMT in Lind.

It was estimated at least six EMTs need to be in Lind in order to operate the ambulance regularly without burning out the crew. There are four EMTs in Washtucna and 12 in Ritzville.

“Even with 12 in Ritzville I was doing 204 hours every two weeks of call hours and that’s on top of my 80 working hours,” Kinney explained.

Ambulances in rural areas must move within five minutes of a call.

The difficulty with finding EMTs is the cost of the training, which is around $1,600.

The cost of the class is covered by the EARH if they finish the course and then work for the hospital district.

It was also reported many individuals who do finish the EMT course then move to larger cities.