Questions linger over state of EMS

KOOTENAI — Bonner County EMS is working through its interdepartmental strife, but questions persist about the department’s lack of a strategic plan, in addition to response time and performance standards.

“We are in exactly the same place we were five years ago,” Bonner County EMS Advisory Council Chairman and Sandpoint Fire Chief Robert Tyler said during a special meeting on Monday.

Since the system formed, the department has had seven different administrators and generated more turnovers than Pepperidge Farm, raising questions about the health of Bonner County EMS and its short- and long-term goals.

“I truly believe if I had the turnover rate in my organization that Bonner EMS has, my directors would have some pretty tough questions,” said Sagle Fire District Chief Rob Goodyear.

The department saw its command staff resign en masse this spring as a show of no-confidence in its newest director Rob Wakeley, but some in the department contend morale is rebounding strongly and Wakeley has made positive steps in mending fences with staff.

But the questions about strategic planning and performance standards still remain.

Wakeley said the department is pulling together response time data from two sources, but the times do not neatly match because of how they’re recorded.

“Response times are tracked, but they’re not tracked according to geography,” Wakeley added.

It was also divulged that the county is contemplating a lease of the former Big Sky Paramedics facility in Sandpoint even though Bonner EMS has an ambulance stationed at the Sandpoint Fire Department.

By all accounts, an ambulance in Sandpoint improved response times in the city.

Wakeley said there is a higher call volume in the city, although response times to the north and east would slow, but there are fewer call-outs to those areas.

Wakeley said he verified the benefits by clocking response times from Sandpoint to points north and east, prompting Tyler to question why this was not being done for the rest of the county.

It also raised the question of whether putting a rig at Sandpoint Fire was simply to justify a decision to relocate Bonner County’s EMS headquarters from Kootenai to Sandpoint.

Wakeley indicated the timing of the Big Sky lease was coincidental because the county looks at the facility annually and was finally offered a lease with 10 months free rent and other inducements.

Steve Groom of Newport Ambulance, which was called upon to fill the void left by the mass resignations, said the issue of system design was a matter for county commissioners, not Wakeley. Groom said Wakeley should be commended for taking the helm of a “disruptive organization,” devoting additional resources and asking form help when needed.

“He’s doing better than everyone before him,” said Groom, whose remarks were applauded by all the county paramedics and emergency medical technicans who attended Monday’s meeting.