Hall Ambulance currently negotiating purchase of land for second area station
Hall Ambulance currently negotiating purchase of land for second area station
By: Carin Enovijas
Description: Hall considers Old Towne location; board of supervisors to consider revisions to standards and increased taxes for added ambulance services
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Posted by editor Thu Jun 7, 2007 10:09:10 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments Hall Ambulance Service (HAS) is currently in negotiations to purchase land for a second station at the corner of Highway 202 and Sage Lane, according to Mark Corum, director of public and media relations for the area’s exclusive ambulance transportation provider.
“We’re currently looking at Highway 202 and Sage [Lane] for a new station that will be large enough to house two ambulance crews,” Corum said, adding that no deadline or alternate plans are currently in the works.
Corum noted during a previous interview with the Tehachapi News that a rise in call volume over the past year has prompted Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall to consider adding a second station in the Tehachapi area, in spite of repeated claims that the company regularly exceeds all county Emergency Medical Services (EMS) response-time standards.
“There are standards we have to meet on a monthly basis for all of our response area and we continually exceeded those requirements as set forth by the county,” Corum said.
On May 29, Kern County EMS Director Ross Elliot released several proposed revisions to the Kern County Ambulance Performance Standards that were approved by the Kern County Board of Supervisors in December 2006.
A “trial run” of the approved standards by service providers resulted in the proposed revisions, which are tentatively slated to go before the board of supervisors on June 19.
The proposed revisions separate ground services from air transport services and require call volume to be reported by community, priority code and type of ambulance. Reporting and categorizing of complaints is also addressed. No changes are made to the response-time performance standards, which require 90 percent compliance, per 100 calls, per each priority code and response time zone.
Elliott balked at public criticisms of the response-time standards in December, stating in a letter to the Tehachapi News, “A compliance rate of 100 percent is virtually impossible to meet and there is no EMS system in the nation that requires ambulances to achieve compliance 100 percent of the time.”
Hall’s claims that they regularly exceed the 90 percent compliance rate provides little comfort for Frazier Park resident Karen Bailey, who said she lost her husband in February of 2005, after waiting over an hour for an ambulance to arrive from Arvin.
Bailey claims the Kern County Fire Department arrived at her home in eight minutes. She is also an advocate for KCFD employment of Advanced Life Support (ALS) firefighter paramedics, an area of contention between HAS and the KCFD.
“Emergency services in a rural community should not be a private (for profit) monopoly,” stated Bailey via email, also expressing concern that a proposed property tax increase of $150 to cover the cost of adding full-time ambulance service in her community could set a precedent for other small communities. “If this manipulation works, each rural community will be hit with the same questionable increased property tax.”
Bailey and many of her neighbors urge support from other rural county communities on June 12, when the proposed property tax issue will go before the board of supervisors.
Elliott also invited the community to send written comments regarding the ambulance standards and proposed revisions to him by 5 p.m. June 5, for inclusion in the department's report to the board of supervisors. Emails can be sent to relliott@co.kern.ca.us. The ambulance performance standards and proposed revisions may be downloaded online at:
http://www.co.kern.ca.us/em...
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