Keeping pace
Payette County Paramedics meets emergency needs as area grows, but what about the future?
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Thursday, November 15, 2007 11:05 AM PST
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| Payette County Paramedic Bryan Simpson checks the medicine supply on one of the ambulances Wednesday at the Fruitland Fire Station. |
FRUITLAND — Payette County Paramedics is keeping up with the recent growth in Payette County and the average call volume appears to be holding steady, Fruitland City Administrator and Payette County Paramedics Business Manager Rick Watkins said.
Watkins said, on average, ambulance crews respond to about two and a half to three and a half calls a day and about 1,400 to 1,425 calls per year, although the numbers can fluctuate.
“It’s just something you can never put your finger on,” he said.
Since Fruitland assumed responsibility of the ambulance service five years ago, Watkins said the top priority has been to update the equipment and vehicles, a process that has been successful.
Payette County Paramedics has received grants for two defibrillator, which it has since received, and two ambulances, which are expected to arrive no later than March.
He said the next focus will be looking at more permanent housing quarters for the paramedic and ambulance service. Currently, the three ambulances used by Payette County Paramedics are situated in the Fruitland fire station and take up a third of the building.
Watkins said when the fire station was built in 1999, it was designed to allow for fire department growing room, but currently the building is at capacity.
Watkins said to handle the public safety growing pains the city is experiencing, at some point city officials plan to build a new public safety building. He said the new building would accommodate the Fruitland Police Department, which is at capacity, and Payette County Paramedics.
Watkins said the city has already purchased property to construct the building, but city officials have been waiting to tackle two other priorities — the new water treatment system and the final facilities plan for the wastewater treatment plant — before taking on a new public safety building. The new water treatment system issue has been solved, and city officials are waiting to find out what federal requirements the wastewater treatment plant must meet before the facilities plans are finalized, Watkins said.
He said he expects, however, the city will take on the public safety building project within the next five years.
When the time comes, Watkins said, city officials will have to consider how a new public safety building will be paid for, considering the police department is supported through the Fruitland general fund, and Payette County Paramedics serves the entire county and is funded differently. Watkins said about 40 to 45 percent of the ambulance service is funded through county property taxes, 40 to 45 percent is funded through patient fees and the remainder comes from things like stand-by service fees at events, sales tax and vehicle registration fees.
“It’s very heavy in personnel-related costs, as most public safety things are,” Watkins said.
The ambulance service is not a money-maker, he said, and it has been a bit of a struggle to make ends meet in the past five years.
Currently, Payette County Paramedics staffs a front-line crew of one paramedic and one emergency medical technician and an on-call crew.
Watkins said, although he sees the potential need for a future satellite substation as Payette County continues to grow and the call volume increases, until the need is justified and monetarily feasible, there are no plans to expand the ambulance service.
So far, he said, the call volume and response trends do not support an additional crew and a substation.
“At this point, it’s just not affordable,” Watkins said.
The satellite office, though, is on the horizon Watkins said. At some point, he said, area officials will need to ponder the plan.
“I really think something like that is going to happen as the population growth continues,” Watkins said.
Where that new satellite substation is situated, however, depends on where the growth occurs in the county and the call volume from that area. Currently, Watkins said, Payette probably receives the most — about 40 percent — of the ambulance calls, Fruitland 35 percent and 25 percent come from New Plymouth.
“It’s pretty much where the population is at,” he said.
