May 12, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
Members of the DeKalb EMS willing to do so may soon be sharing medical examiner investigator responsibilities when there is an ambulance call involving a death. Director Hoyte Hale would serve as the backup if no staff member is available at the time.
During a meeting Thursday night, the county budget committee approved the EMS operating budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year which includes provisions for payment to EMS staff trained to perform this duty working under the physician who serves as the actual medical examiner/county coroner. According to the plan, $5,000 would be budgeted including $2,000 (for payment) in the medical personnel salary line item and $3,000 for overtime. Director Hale would be expected to make quarterly reports to the county’s Health, Education, and Public Welfare Committee on how this new plan is working.
All five budget committee members in attendance voted in favor of this plan including Tom Chandler, Sabrina Farler, Glynn Merriman, Jeff Barnes, and Mathias Anderson. Members Susannah Cripps and Tony (Cully) Culwell were absent.
Originally, the proposal was to make Director Hale the primary medical examiner death investigator and pay him an extra $5,000 per year and to have EMS employees serve as the backup but the budget committee failed to approve this option on a 3 to 2 vote. Those voting for the plan were Tom Chandler and Mathias Anderson while Sabrina Farler, Glynn Merriman, and Chairman Jeff Barnes voted against it.
Assistant EMS Director Trent Phipps, who came up with this idea, explained to the budget committee how death investigation calls were previously handled by the ambulance service.
“We used to use off duty EMS personnel to answer these calls contracted through the courthouse and (Medical Examiner) Dr. Denise Dingle to do the job at $100 per call,” said Phipps.
“I proposed to him (EMS Director Hale) that we get a group of people willing to do this in their off-duty time and pay them. The EMS has a long-established call in policy which means that if I call someone in to cover an ambulance, we pay them for three hours whether they work two or three hours. Of course, if it goes over, we have to pay them over,” said Assistant Director Phipps.
“I asked him (Director Hale) if it would be a good idea to get off duty people trained to come and cover the medical examiner calls and we pay them for three hours unless they do it more which is not very common but to pay them at least three hours to do this,” explained Phipps. “I have had a conversation with several EMS employees and got three solid yeses’ (willing to participate), a bunch of no’s, and a few maybes. The main concern most of them had was will I get paid and how much will I get paid. The other concern they expressed was how many people are going to do this because they do not want to do it all the time,” Phipps continued. “If I can get numbers to (these) people I might get more cooperation. Several of the people who said yes are part time employees and they won’t get any overtime, just straight time to do it,” he added.
According to Phipps, this plan would ensure that a medical death investigator is available to make a prompt response when summoned by law enforcement.
“It was my idea to set a schedule, so dispatch doesn’t have to call a bunch of people, with the sheriff’s department waiting on somebody to get there. Of course, the ambulance is going to show up to start the preliminary things because we have to go, but this would provide a set schedule, so dispatch knows who to call. I will set up a calendar and fill it out every month for who is on call,” said Assistant EMS Director Phipps.
According to statistics, the county averages 50-60 bodies per year in which a medical examiner/coroner’s report is needed.
At a previous meeting, Director Hale had asked the budget committee to include funding for four new EMS employees, preferably paramedics which would have been needed partly to fully staff a 24/7 crew at the Liberty Fire Station. But after later voting to deny the request, the committee asked Director Hale to rework his budget for re-submission without the proposed four new positions.
During his budget presentation Thursday night, Director Hale explained that after removing proposed funding for four new employees, the line item for medical personnel salaries was reduced from $911,787 to $771,406 for the year.
Part time pay has been increased from $135,000 this year to $140,000 next year and the allocation for overtime pay has been adjusted back to $200,000, down from the original request of $250,000. A part time secretary would get a three dollar per hour increase in pay going from $12 to $15 under Director Hale’s request.
With at three EMS employees planning to attend paramedic school, Director Hale has asked that the budget for In-service training be upped from $18,000 to $40,000.
Meanwhile, Hale wants the allocation for vehicle maintenance and repair to be increased by $10,000 from $65,000 to $75,000 and that the budget for maintenance and repair to the EMS building be adjusted by $3,500 to $8,500. Plans are to replace garage door motors, add security cameras and keyed door pad locks, and to do some painting.
Again, the budget committee approved the proposed $1,818,633 EMS budget for 2024-25 as re-presented by Director Hale. The county commission will have to give final approval with passage of the consolidated budget in June.