Ambulance crews to know call-in days in advance
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by Patty Cheffey
Following approval by the board, Marion County Ambulance District employees will now know in advance the days they might be called in to work.
Approval was given for the new call-in policy during the MCAD Board of Director’s meeting last week, at which they also approved paying off a loan and learned some supply shortage issues seem to be easing up.
The board discussed the new call-in policy following the swearing in of Cheryl Arntzen, who was selected by the board to fill the unexpired term of Tom Rupp, who moved out of the district he was representing.
Chief John Nemes said he had offered the crews some options on call-in duty asking them for what they felt was “a fair and equitable way to do mandatory call-in” if there were staff shortages.
“The majority of the crews were in favor of a rotating call system that allowed the employees to know when their scheduled call days will be well in advance,” he said.
After reviewing it, the board approved the new policy.
In other new business, Nemes presented information on the contract with Zoll, noting the district has two payments left on the five-year, zero-interest note, totaling $110,400 for the new cardiac monitors purchased in 2018.
Nemes requested and the board approved paying off the note early, which will free up the budget in preparation for the remounted trucks, which will be arriving this spring.
In his report, Nemes said Braun is anticipating a March 7 inspection and pick-up date on the next remount.
“The other two trucks are still pending inspection as Braun continues to fall behind due to labor and material shortages,” Nemes said, noting the district was fortunate to get in at a good time as new truck builds are now three years out and remounts close to two years out.
While there are still major delays in some areas, Nemes said the shortage on AEDs appears to be letting up some.
“New orders are now two to three months out, which is considerably better than where they were,” he said, adding the district recently placed AEDs at LNK Fitness in Hannibal and Jackson Park Golf Course in Palmyra.
Also in his report, Nemes noted the district’s IT department met with the Stryker IT person to work on getting the new cots integrated into the district’s system.
“Each cot is tied to a respective wifi access point and it provides ‘health’ data continually,” Nemes said. “If a crew experiences a failure or error with a cot, supervisors can look at the portal and determine what the failure was so Stryker knows exactly what to do to remedy the problem.”
Nemes went on to report that the district has started gathering the necessary data for the CMS cost reporting they are required to provide this year.
Wade Stables, who performs the annual audit for the district, has begun work so the depreciation schedules could be compiled for the CMS report, Nemes said, adding the firm is also looking to confirm a date to come and finish the rest of the audit earlier than normal.
Truck routers have been provisioned and are in the process of being installed, Nemes said with the work expected to be done in a week or so.
Following that, they can be integrated with NECOMM.
Nemes reported that MCAD answered 486 calls for emergency service in December. Base 1 (Hannibal) – 2711 handled 119 calls, 2721 handled 108 calls, Base 2 (Hannibal) handled 169 calls, Base 3 (Palmyra) handled 85 calls. There were five off-duty transfers.
The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 16, at the Marion County Ambulance District Training Center.