By Terry Rindfleisch
La Crosse Tribune (Wisconsin)
Copyright 2007 La Crosse Tribune
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
Matt Zavadsky’s interest in emergency medical services began when local volunteers responded to his father’s heart attack more than 20 years ago.
The Trumbull, Conn., native became a local EMS volunteer and finished his training as a paramedic five years later.
“I was so impressed and inspired by people who responded to emergencies,” Zavadsky said.
Six weeks ago, Zavad-sky took over as director of Tri-State Ambulance, based in La Crosse.
The 45-year-old said he is passionate about making emergency medical services better in the area. He is making some changes quickly, and he has set high standards.
As part of a new contract with La Crosse County, Tri-State set a standard to respond to 90 percent of calls within eight minutes. “Average response time is not a good measure, and we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard,” Zavadsky said.
The national standard response time is nine minutes in urban areas and 11 to 12 minutes in rural areas, he said.
Tri-State has two ambulances each in Holmen and at its main Buchner Place location in La Crosse. Another ambulance is now stationed in the town of Shelby building to better cover the town and southern areas, Zavadsky said.
He said he wants ambulances to move to different areas depending on the time of day.
“We want to better manage our response time, so we want our trucks, for example, on Hwy. 16 and 53 during rush hour where there is a greater chance for an accident,” Zavadsky said. “The system should not be station-based, but response-based.”
He said he also wants paramedics equipped with laptop computers in ambulances for more complete information and communication on the way to an emergency.
“The foundation of the emergency medical services system in La Crosse is perfect,” Zavadsky said. “We have a core group of paramedics (60) responding to a lot of calls (14,000 a year) and a rapid response system.
“It’s unusual for a rural area to have this good of system in place,” he said. “My goal is to make it better.”
Zavadsky, who has a master’s degree in health care administration from the University of Central Florida, was county EMS director in Daytona Beach, Fla., the past five years. He said he has three goals for Tri-State:
Maintain a good system of paramedics, who are medically supervised by physicians.
Develop an emergency dispatch system to allow Tri-State dispatchers at Gundersen Luther-an to give instructions to caregivers based on national protocols while paramedics are on their way.
Begin a community health outreach program to visit people who often use the ambulance. “We want to reduce the number of calls by frequent users,” he said. “Some people need to be check-ed on to make sure they take their medication. This is a better way to use health-care resources than taking them by ambulance to the hospital several times a year when they’re in trouble.”