By Chad Drury
Ottumwa Courier
OTTUMWA, Iowa 鈥� The whiteboard at the Wapello County emergency management office was littered with lines, words, parentheses, punctuation and post-it notes.
Yet, the brainstorming session began in earnest for creating a robust emergency medical service system the county can depend on.
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Over the course of 2 1/2 hours Monday, emergency management director Tim Richmond encouraged the EMS advisory council to list the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats with how the current system operates. It was a painstaking process that set up the council to create both short- and long-term goals starting with its next meeting in September.
One of the ideas that appeared popular among the group was performing outreach to high school students to be the 鈥減ipeline to the pipeline鈥� for EMS, as Richmond called it.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 really the game. It鈥檚 getting in the high schools. Everybody鈥檚 playing the game trying to get them into a trade,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut we鈥檝e had trouble getting the pipeline primed because of covid. We鈥檝e had some success with the internships we did, but those are grant funds, and that鈥檚 not sustainable, at least right now.
鈥淪o part of it is the sustainability and the initial education.鈥�
Many of the strengths the group devised somewhat overlapped. Members touted the years of experience in emergency response already on the council, as well as quality providers, fire-based EMS and ORMICS, which runs the bulk of ambulance services currently.
However, interim deputy fire chief David Cronin believed there also needs to be more of an emphasis on how non-emergency response people can be empowered when possible.
鈥淲e鈥檙e already in like some of those higher-volume places like the high-rises, just doing general safety training,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o just implementing, or throwing out the idea of, would there be people willing to respond if there was a problem within the towers? You can make a call tree, but there are people there all the time, they鈥檙e just not doing those things.鈥�
鈥淧eople love a purpose,鈥� Richmond said.
Many of the weaknesses identified with community engagement, the lack of 鈥渢hinking outside the box,鈥� as well as addressing staffing and communications shortages, particularly an emergency medical dispatcher.
However, some of the opportunities included developing a framework for community paramedicine, particularly for those who are frequent callers to 911 and don鈥檛 have a support system in place. There was also a discussion about expanding public transit, specifically 10-15 Transit, to assist non-emergency medical transportation.
Also, the group identified some threats, namely the cuts the federal government will be making to Medicaid in future years, as well as the imminent closure of Hospice Serving Davis and Wapello Counties because of the lack of sufficient funding.
Tom Maher, who was appointed to the council as a resident of the community, spoke highly of the Veterans Affairs model for home health care, because his wife experienced it for many years.
鈥淭he one we have right now that works the best within the community is the VA ,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 we look at their model of how they do things and start picking their brain? They鈥檙e exceptional.鈥�
However, the VA service is funded federally, but Richmond said it would be worth looking at.
Peter Reiter, a retired physician, said those programs exist, but mostly in urban areas and are funded through insurance companies or health systems.
鈥淭he most important thing is sustainable funding, because it鈥檚 a lot of work to do this,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou have to contract it, or you have to develop your own model. It鈥檚 got to be here next year, and the year after that.鈥�
The next meeting will be Sept. 3 at 6 p.m. at the emergency management office. However, a subcommittee was formed to dive into various data that will include 911 calls and ambulance response times, which will guide in the decision-making process.
鈥淧ulling some of that data from the computer-aided dispatch is quite enlightening,鈥� Richmond said. 鈥淪o much of this stuff is just driven by data. We can鈥檛 improve if we don鈥檛 measure ourselves, and we鈥檙e going to start collecting data in the right way.鈥�
What items do you believe an EMS advisory council should be considering when overhauling EMS?
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