By Chad Drury
Ottumwa Courier
WAPELLO COUNTY, Iowa — The history of emergency medical services in Wapello County is fascinating, but also complicated.
Yet, several residents wanted to know about what EMS will look like moving forward.
Many of those questions couldn’t be answered during Tuesday’s crowded public meeting at Bridge View Center, but starting next week at the Wapello County Board of Supervisors meeting and in the coming months, the answers to those questions will become clearer.
“One of the reasons we’re having this conversation is that people don’t believe us when we say it’s not required by law, but there absolutely is no legal requirement for an ambulance to show up, or to respond to your 911 call,” said Tim Richmond, director of the Wapello County Emergency Management Agency.
“We’ve come to expect it because we delivered those services as community members for a long time.”
The county is seeking to establish an EMS service, which is not required by state law, the same way it is for fire or police service. However, state law does indicate how it must be established if a county chooses that path, and leaves it in the voters’ hands. A levy of up to 75 cents per $1,000 of valuation, a 1% local income tax, or a combination of the two must be approved by 60% of the voters.
The county’s history with EMS stretches back to the 1940s, when funeral homes provided transport as a service, and in 1952, the Ottumwa Fire Department began a no-fee 24-hour ambulance service that was provided by public donations.
EMS didn’t evolve into its current form until the 1970s, when the first accredited paramedic training program was established nationally.
Locally, the breakthrough came in 1981 when Ottumwa Regional Mobile Intensive Care Services (ORMICS) took over the service from the county after seven years, though the county and City of Ottumwa contributed funding for EMS service.
Just as it was decades ago, funding has always been at the root of how EMS looks and how much is invested in it because little money is made when it comes to patients on Medicare or Medicaid.
“There were a lot of partnerships, and we were truly making a system out of it countywide. We made EMS look good because we were in our local communities and we were trusted,” said Cindy Hewitt, a former ORMICS manager who has been involved in many different facets of EMS for decades. “Our blessings are making a strong community and doing the right thing every time.
“The sheriff’s office, police department, fire service ... they were not doing it because there was city funding or political turf. They were doing because people needed help. I hope to still do it until I can no longer do it. I’m very proud of this service.”
Members of the public asked questions about what the next wave of EMS will look like, and many times, there simply wasn’t enough information available. It’s anticipated that after the supervisors complete the third reading of the resolution, which will make EMS essential and create the advisory council, more answers will come forth.
However, Richmond hinted that the council will represent a swath of local officials.
“Those running EMS services now are the subject matter experts. We’ve asked a retired physician to be part of it, one member of the board of supervisors, and one member of the Ottumwa City Council as a core group,” he said. “Then we’ll have a list of ad hoc members from other parts of the health care system.
“The whole number in its entirety is 14. I think that’s a manageable number.”
One person said they would specifically vote for the measure, and other wanted to know what incentives would be in place to keep EMTs and paramedics local. Indian Hills Community College has 15 students in its paramedic program, most of them still working in the area, though Richmond said it’s not uncommon to see individuals working multiple services in multiple counties.
“How about a tax break from property taxes?” one resident said.
“That’s actually been introduced in the legislature for volunteers, just this session,” Richmond said. “It definitely gets brought up every year in the legislative session.”
Once the advisory council is formed, it’s anticipated the council will spend the next few months assessing the needs of the county, making recommendations to the supervisors, and then likely another public meeting to discuss those recommendations before a ballot measure is put to a vote.
“The fact that you’re here means you are part of the process, and we really welcome and encourage that,” supervisor Bryan Ziegler told the crowd. “I’m going to be very involved in the process and making sure something good happens for us in this county.
“We can design a system that is for us, and that’s a neat thing.”
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