Ambulance board discusses supply issues, fills unexpired term

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While some of the supplies ordered last year for the Marion County Ambulance District have arrived, other items are still on hold because of supply problems.

The ambulance district board discussed the problem during their meeting last week, at which they also voted to appoint a former employee to the board to fill an unexpired term and heard an update on truck remounts and CMS cost reporting.

Chief John Nemes reported the grant for PowerLoad system in the new van is on hold because Stryker is about six months behind on production.

Since this is an issue with many agencies who received the grants, the Missouri Employers Mutual extended the reimbursement period to the middle of the year to account for production and shipping delays. 

The district will still be receiving $10,000 towards the purchase of the system when it’s shipped and received, Nemes said.

While there is a production issue with the PowerLoad system, the new truck routers have been received, but not installed because of a communication problem.

“There was some miscommunication on the vendor’s part,” Nemes said, noting district employees will now be doing the installation and putting the routeres online one at a time. “This actually works out better since there are three trucks at Braun that will need router installation once they return.” 

Nemes is working with T-Mobile and will be receiving extra SIM cards to complete the provisioning of the routers before they are installed.

Concerning the trucks, Nemes told the board the last three trucks scheduled for remounting have been delivered to Braun and are being prepped. The expected return date on the remounted trucks is late March

Next, Nemes said they received the new Stryker cots and all employees have been in-serviced on them, along with the area first responder agencies.

Under new business, Nemes said he had met with board member, Tom Rupp, who in December had taken a leave of absence from the board due to personal reasons. Rupp has now also moved to a different residence and is no longer in the subdistrict he represents.

Since the move no longer makes him eligible to serve on the board, Rupp has tendered his resignation, making the rest of his term, February 2023 through April 2024, available.

Nemes had posted the notice on the ambulance district’s website asking for interested persons in Subdistrict 4 (Hannibal 5th Ward and Miller Township) to contact him, and two individuals did.

The board approved the appointment of Cheryl Arntzen, the retired finance director for the ambulance district, to fill the term. Also expressing an interest was Judy Carpenter.

While both candidates met the qualifications, Nemes noted Arntzen has already had all of the required board member training certifications and would not need additional training to serve.

Nemes and the board thanked Rupp for his many years of distinguished service and contributions to the district, noting that he will be missed by all. 

Rupp, in turn, thanked everyone, saying he has “greatly enjoyed his time with MCAD.”

In other business, Nemes said the district has started gathering the necessary data for the Center for Medicare Services cost reporting which the district is required to provide this year. The paperwork must be submitted by the end of May. 

“The CMS randomly chooses agencies for mandatory cost reporting, and we were chosen last year,” Nemes said. 

He is currently working with Public Consulting Group on the data collection, who also oversees the GEMT program.

Under the chief’s report, Nemes reported that MCAD answered 530 calls for emergency service in December.  Base 1 (Hannibal) – 2711 handled 165 calls, 2721 handled 104 calls, Base 2 (Hannibal) handled 173 calls, Base 3 (Palmyra) handled 81 calls, and there were seven off-duty transfers.

Nemes said the district answered a total 6,297 calls for emergency service in 2022, which was an increase of 168 calls over 2021.