By Lisa Trigg
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Vigo County firefighters for three townships have asked county officials to stop a local ambulance service from “run jumping” in response to emergency medical calls for service.
Riley Medic 51, Honey Creek and Sugar Creek township fire departments sent representatives to speak to commissioners Judy Anderson, Brad Anderson and Jon Marvel on Tuesday about what the firefighters called “disrespectful” treatment by Trans-Care in its policy of responding to emergency scenes that other agencies are handling.
“What we’re observing is they are thumbing their nose at you,” Honey Creek firefighter Will Frankel told the commissioners. “We just want the problem to stop, and we are looking for you to help in doing that.”
The county commissioners have contracted with Trans-Care to provide ambulance service to areas outside the city of Terre Haute. However, three township trustees signed a contract for service with Riley ambulance.
County attorney Michael Wright told the commissioners that he has checked with the Indiana Attorney General and has found that the township trustees do have authority to contract for their own ambulance service, outside what the commissioners approved. Wright said he has drafted a letter to send to Trans-Care stating that opinion of the attorney general; however, that letter had not been sent as of Tuesday morning’s commissioner session.
Riley Fire Chief Jeff Fox said that Trans-Care is dispatched to the rollover calls in the three townships when Riley Medic 51 is unavailable to respond. Medic 51 is stationed at a Honey Creek Township firehouse on Springhill Road.
For a few weeks, Medic 51 was being dispatched “silently” via text message, Fox said, which meant that the location for the ambulance was not being broadcast over the radio. Trans-Care has objected to that practice, however, and has filed a tort claim notice with the county, stating that litigation is possible if Trans-Care feels the county has broken its ambulance service contract.
Fox said the agencies have merely started using Active 911, a mobile data program, to dispatch emergency medical runs via text. For Trans-Care to get the text messages, the company would have to subscribe to that data program, or some other messaging service, Fox said.
Honey Creek Fire Chief Jean Frankel told the commissioners that having the dispatch information sent to the emergency responders in a text message is more convenient and cost effective than equipping personnel with pagers, which are old technology.
Since the tort claim notice was filed, however, central dispatch has stopped sending silent text messages.
Commissioner Marvel said that he and fellow commissioners are concerned that changing the way the medic runs are dispatched by using text messaging could be interpreted as a breach of the contract with Trans-Care.
Commissioner Brad Anderson agreed. “I feel everything needs to be uniform,” he said of the dispatching methods.
Fox, Jean Frankel and Sugar Creek Chief Derrick Scott told the commissioners they do not have a problem with Trans-Care sending ambulances to emergency runs as backup or rollover in their districts, because often more than one ambulance is needed at an accident scene.
The problem, Will Frankel said, is when too many ambulances respond and it jeopardizes public safety.
“All we want to do is serve the public and provide good service,” he said. “Now, we have run jumping.”
Fox said that Medic 51 has been busy since going into service in January. They have had 15 medical transports in Riley Township, 195 medial transports in Honey Creek and 101 in Sugar Creek for 311 total transports in the first quarter of the year. The total number of responses has been 416 for the quarter, and 352 patients have been evaluated by medic personnel.
Russell Ferrell, CEO of Trans-Care, was contacted for comment about the issue by the Tribune-Star, and he objected to the allegation of “run jumping” as stated in the meeting.
“We don’t run jump,” Ferrell said. “We are obligated to take care of runs in Vigo County. We were hired by the county to handle the calls. The county runs are ours.”
Ferrell declined to comment on the status of the notice of tort claim because it is pending litigation.
©2015 The Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, Ind.)