March 23, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
Should the county bring back the ambulance service day truck crew on weekends?
Hoyte Hale, Director of the DeKalb EMS operation, met with the budget committee of the county commission recently to formally make the request.
In an effort to streamline costs, the county last summer decided to stop the day truck shifts on Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. while still providing the county coverage with the two other around the clock crews over the weekends.
Hale said there is a need to bring back the day truck. The additional costs to staff it with full time personnel would be $61,000 per year to the county. The expense would be less if Hale could use part time staff.
The DeKalb EMS operation uses two around the clock crews every day during the week and a day truck crew from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
EMS staff work on a 24/72 (24 hours on duty/72 hours off duty) schedule.
Hale said bringing back the day truck crew on the weekends would provide better coverage to the county and offer relief to crews working the other two shifts.
According to Hale, much of the demand for extra weekend help is created by the volume of calls from the hospital for patient transports to medical facilities in other counties, most of which are convalescent runs.
“We did 452 transports out of the hospital and out of the county from July 1, 2018 to February 28, 2019 including sending patients to 95 doctor’s appointments. The average time on a run like this when an ambulance is not in the county can be from two to eight hours,” said Hale.
During times when there are more calls than available ambulances, the county has to count on EMS operations in adjoining counties to handle them through mutual aid agreements.
Hale said bringing back the day truck crew on weekends would potentially generate more revenue to the county and lessen fatigue on the staff as well as wear and tear of the ambulances. “There are times when only one truck is available to cover the county, a 329 square mile area,” said Hale.
EMS director Hale is also asking for a $3,000 pay raise. He currently earns $50,000 per.
The budget committee took no action on Hale’s request but will consider it when finalizing the 2019-20 spending plan to send to the county commission.