County emergency-services plan taking shape

A rough draft of a countywide approach to emergency medical responses will likely go to the Flathead County commissioners in the near future.

On Thursday, emergency agency representatives tweaked that rough draft.

The informal group's plan is that the Flathead County Attorney's Office will send the draft resolution to the commissioners.

After getting the commissioners' feedback, the loose-knit coalition expects to revise and return the plan to the commissioners, hoping to get the green light for the Flathead City-County Board of Health to create a framework to govern and standardize emergency medical services across the county.

The group hopes to get that OK in a few weeks.

For the past two months, roughly 30 to 35 representatives from at least 20 rural and city fire departments, ambulance services and other emergency agencies have tackled how to better coordinate the county's hodgepodge of medical emergency responses.

And they want someone or some board in charge with legal clout to enforce that coordination.

"We have to have some authority or teeth in this thing, or we're back where we started from," Kalispell City Council member Duane Larson said.

On Thursday, 18 people representing eight to 10 agencies met. Overall, Flathead County has an estimated 29 entities that provide emergency medical services besides hospitals.

Right now, the overall emergency medical response system sort of works, but falls short of what it should be able to do, emergency officials said.

Agencies do not communicate well with each other or up or down the various chains of command, officials said.

Different fire departments, ambulance services and first responders offer different skill levels of medical aid. And no one really keeps track of who offers what skills where.

The proposed resolution is an attempt to get the county commissioners to authorize creating an advisory group - consisting of doctors and emergency medical officials - to help the Health Board's emergency medical service committee set up a framework to coordinate and enforce emergency medical protocols.

That proposed advisory group is supposed to tackle:

. Jurisdictional and training issues across the 29 emergency organizations.

. Setting up an individual with the legal capacity to make countywide medical emergency decisions and the ability to enforce them.

. Ensuring emergency medical units have input with local planning departments when they study how housing developments affect government services.

. Setting up a formal relationship with the Flathead City-County 911 Administration Board to play a more solid role in creating an independent countywide 911 dispatch center.

"Once you form an advisory committee, you'll get more say with 911 because you become a legitimate entity," West Valley Fire Chief Rod Dresbach said.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com