Selkirk fire chief weighs in on EMS predicament
SANDPOINT — Selkirk Fire Chief Jeff Armstrong weighed in on Bonner County EMS’ fiscal woes during a presentation he gave at Tuesday’s BOCC business meeting.
Armstrong said he had been in touch with both county commissioners and Bonner County EMS Chief Jeff Lindsey since the outset of Bonner EMS’ recent problems to share ideas on how the Selkirk Fire, Rescue and EMS Joint Power Authority might be able to help.
“Bonner County EMS is a partner in our community,” Armstrong said. “Their success is our success; their challenges are our challenges, because our missions overlap.”
He said he was not one of the people coming forward claiming they could do better with EMS, but to note that the right questions are not being asked, and more collaboration and communication are needed about the future of Bonner County emergency services.
“We should be constantly asking ourselves, ‘Why are we doing what we are doing?’” Armstrong said. “Everything from, ‘Why does a fire engine go to a medical aid (call)?’ to, ‘Why do we staff the stations the way we staff them? Why are they placed where they are in the community?’”
One of the ideas he suggested looking into was co-locating fire personnel and EMS personnel in the same buildings. Armstrong said this could save money and increase camaraderie between Selkirk Fire and Bonner County EMS.
He also said he would love to have paramedics on fire engines and does not believe there is a single paramedic at Bonner County EMS that would not welcome that extra set of hands on a critical patient.
“We’ve got to stop looking at the fire departments as a threat,” Armstrong said. “We’re not a threat.”
According to Armstrong, the Selkirk Fire JPA is not seeking new members and is not looking to take over Bonner County EMS. Ambulances are not a “cash cow,” according to Armstrong, and seeing the situation Bonner County EMS currently finds itself in proves that.
“We are all in this together,” Armstrong said. “I am not going to sit at one end of the ship and say, ‘Well, the ship is sinking but it’s going down on that end.’ Guess what, we’re all going to go down together. So, we are here to fight together.”
Armstrong strongly recommended that the county bring in a consultant to evaluate Bonner County EMS and noted the organization needs to determine what it wants moving forward. Does it want cost savings, or a higher level of service, or both?
He said that making decisions that would result in a reduction in pay for staff or a reduction of services — even if it was only a reduction in the outskirts of Bonner County — would affect the whole system.
“I hear a lot of talk about funding, I hear a lot of talk about jobs, positions, and those are all great things because we have to take good care of our employees,” Armstrong said. “But I heard the fire departments mentioned more in the (BOCC) meetings that I watched on YouTube than I heard patients mentioned. And I think at some point we have to take a step back and look at, ‘What are we doing for our patients and what is the best thing we can do for our community?’”