By Armando Rios
The Baxter Bulletin
Copyright 2007 The Baxter Bulletin
BAXTER COUNTY, Ark. — The ambulance situation heated up Wednesday when Action Ambulance put three ambulances out at different locations around the city and county to compete with Baxter Regional Medical Center, sometimes within blocks of BRMC ambulances.
While BRMC has five stations in Baxter County and Marion County, Action stationed its three licensed ambulances at different convenience stores — including one at the intersection of State Highways 5 and 201 North, one on State Highway 5 South, and one at the intersection of State Highway 126 and U.S. Highway 62/412 in Gassville. The ambulances on State Highway 5 South and in Gassville were within viewing distance of BRMC ambulance stations.
Nancy Melton with Action Ambulance said her company was trying to see if making more ambulances available would result in the company getting more calls. She said the ambulances were placed around on a trial basis.
“We moved around quite a bit,” Melton said. “One would sit on 5 North, or higher on 201 North. They did not sit at one particular spot. We moved the trucks trying to find out what would be the best location for them.”
Action EMS — now Action Ambulance — opened its doors in January 2005, and the county began dispatching calls on a 3-1 ratio countywide. In May 2005, Action petitioned County Judge Dan Hall, and the rotation was changed to a 50-50 basis to be fair in the call distribution, Hall said at the time. Action was using two ambulances.
Last month, Baxter County Office of Emergency Management Director Tom Fischer said the 911 dispatchers would start trying to dispatch the ambulance closest to the scene within city limits when possible and would revert to the 50-50 rotation only if the dispatcher could not immediately determine which service was closest.
So far, all parties agree response times are down, meaning people are getting help sooner.
The hospital has five ambulance stations, said Gerald Cantrell, BRMC ambulance service paramedic director. Two ambulances are stationed at the hospital and one ambulance each at stations on State Highway 5 South, Gassville, Bull Shoals and Yellville.
Cantrell says the ambulances are stationed strategically for faster response times.
The national response time is 8 minutes or less 90 percent of the time, he said.
“We meet that and exceed that number consistently with a higher or quicker response,” Cantrell said.
Melton says Action is dispatched to only 30 percent of calls to the 911 Center. On average, Action gets 3.8 calls a day, she said. Wednesday, Action received three calls.
“We were told if we put out more ambulances, we would get more calls,” Melton said. “We are trying to see where it leads to.
“We put on three. They wanted more units available to see if we could get more calls; we did not wind up getting more calls,” she said.
Melton does not believe the situation will be resolved until all ambulances have vehicle locators and the 911 Center has the software to locate the ambulances on a map.
On the other hand, Cantrell says the current system is working well and 911 dispatchers are doing a very good job.
Cantrell says BRMC has 10 ambulances in its fleet, nine paramedic and one basic ambulance used for transfers. On a normal day, there are five or six ambulances staffed. At night, BRMC usually has three ambulances staffed and available for Baxter County.
The ambulances at BRMC are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Cantrell says. The Highway 5 South station is manned from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. The Gassville and Yellville stations are manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week; while the Bull Shoals station is manned 20 hours a day, with staff on call the other four hours.
The hospital has provided ambulance service since 1974 at BRMC, Cantrell says. The State Highway 5 South station was opened in 2004, while the Gassville station was opened in 2004. The hospital started the Yellville station in 1989 and Bull Shoals in 1992.
Fischer says both ambulance services are complying with a request to notify 911 dispatchers of the locations of the ambulances at all times.
Melton says Action dispatchers call 911 dispatchers every morning and anytime the ambulances move or are out on a call.
Cantrell says BRMC calls 911 dispatchers at 8 a.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m. BRMC dispatchers also notify 911 anytime an ambulance moves or goes on an assigned call.
Fischer says 911 dispatchers are still attempting to send the closest ambulance when possible, and falling back on the rotation method when it cannot be determined which ambulance is closer. Fischer also says when people request a particular ambulance service, dispatchers honor those requests.
According to Baxter County 911 ambulance logs, since the 911 Center started attempting to send the closest ambulance on Oct. 21, there have been 68 calls for ambulances. Of those, the closest ambulance or a requested ambulance was dispatched 65 times, and 11 of those calls went to Action. The remaining 54 calls went to BRMC. Dispatchers had to revert to the 50-50 rotation method three times.
The three calls sent by rotation were all on Wednesday, the day Action stationed its ambulances at the three locations.
“They started yesterday (Wednesday) putting ambulances almost side by side with BRMC,” Fischer said. “That is making it difficult and time consuming for dispatchers to send the closest ambulance.”
Dispatchers now have to question every single call for an ambulance, he added.
“It puts pressure on dispatchers by putting ambulances side -by-side,” Fischer said. “We are still attempting to send the closest.” He questioned why the ambulance locations were not spread out further to ensure quicker response.
Cantrell says BRMC has 64 people on ambulance staff, full time and part time, including 24 EMTs, 27 paramedics and 13 dispatchers. Of the dispatchers, seven are EMTs, he added. Of that number, 17 are scheduled regularly each day for ambulances and dispatch. In addition, there are four others on call and available if needed.
Melton says Action has 10 on staff — seven are EMTs and the others are paramedics.