Kalispell voters to decide EMS services

Kalispell City Manager Doug Russell says the EMS levy request on the November ballot gives city residents the opportunity to decide for themselves what the proper mechanism is for funding ambulance service within the city.

Voters are being asked to approve a new levy of 18.7 mills to provide funding specifically for emergency medical services within the Kalispell Fire Department. That would generate $736,000 each year to fund the EMS. If approved, the levy would add approximately $24.48 in property taxes on a home valued at $100,000 per year, and $48.96 on a home valued at $200,000.

Voters will be able to mark “FOR” on the November ballot if they wish the levy to pass, or “AGAINST” if they do not wish the levy to pass.

“We’re looking to the public to find out what level of service they want,” said Russell. “We will provide what we can, but the public needs to tell us what they want us to provide.”  

The total budget for expenses in 2014 is $968,919, of which $590,000 comes from fees for service, $110,000 from the county EMS levy, and about $260,000 from the city general fund.

Russell and Fire Chief Dave Dedman told the Daily Inter Lake editorial board on Tuesday that given the rising number of calls each year, the EMS needs to raise more money to maintain the current level of service. Last year, the number of emergency calls increased by 11 percent.

Russell and Dedman both served on a committee made up of city officials, EMS staff and members of the International Association of Firefighters union that examined the options.

“We looked at many different components of area emergency calls, from the timing of calls, to staffing, to funding needs, to the geography of calls,” said Russell. “We wanted to account for everything, so we could look at all our options.”

The committee reviewed six options for the EMS, including combining different emergency departments, closing stations, or inviting a privatized EMS into the city of Kalispell.

Upon completing this report, the committee recommended that the City Council put forth a ballot to give Kalispell residents an opportunity to vote on the dedicated mill levy.

According to the report, this would “remove the general fund subsidy that is currently stressing the general fund operations, provide for capital equipment replacement, and provide an increase in staffing to reduce the amount of calls that are being covered by neighboring jurisdictions,” such as Evergreen Fire Department or West Valley EMS.

According to the report, the dedicated mill levy would allow a staffing increase from approximately 9.5 people per shift to 11. In addition to making the department less dependent on outside services, the fund would also allow the EMS to replace equipment inside the city’s ambulances, which will need to be updated in the near future.

The report also points out that funds which have been previously allocated to subsidize EMS operations can be redistributed to other needs, such as fire department equipment or law enforcement staffing, or could be used to reduce property taxes.

This levy has no set end date, but would be re-evaluated in approximately 10 years, according to Russell.

The Kalispell EMS received over 3,000 calls in 2013, but was unable to respond to 140 of these, 96 of which required a patient to be transported to the hospital, because of staffing shortages, or because EMS was too busy.

Currently, the city’s EMS team has three ambulances — from 1999, 2002 and 2005. According to Russell, these are currently working machines, but will need medical equipment to be replaced in the near future, as they have a predicted seven-year life span. All three ambulances are equipped with Advanced Life Support in addition to Basic Life Support capabilities.

“Advanced Life Support means that we basically bring the ER to your house in the ambulance” said Dedman. “The only thing they don’t have in there is an MRI machine or an X-ray.”

This capability adds valuable time to patient care, according to Dedman, because it allows the EMS to begin potentially life-saving operations while en route to the hospital. Calls handled by outside jurisdictions have a slower reaction time, and could add several minutes to travel time, which would be crucial during an emergency.

There were several other options proposed for EMS funds. One idea that has been prevalent for years is the thought of privatizing the service, which would remove the burden from the city.

However, according to Russell, this could create more problems for the city than it would solve.

“We’ve looked into this option, and found that the city would only be able to save $30,000,” he said, partly because the city would still need to maintain a certain level of staffing for fire personnel even if they were not involved in ambulance calls.

The report also states that national research showed it could be difficult to find a purely market-driven operation for a community the size of Kalispell because of the difficulty of making a profit.

Kalispell is the only major Montana city currently providing its own ambulance service, but Dedman and Russell both said that is more because of historic factors rather than expediency.

Dedman said other fire departments have reached out to Kalispell to find out how they can duplicate the city’s success in maintaining its own Emergency Medical Service, but that logistically it was very difficult to enter an existing market as a municipal fire department and supplant or supplement current ambulance services without being a disruptive force.

The full report and ballot can be viewed online at www.kalispell.com/mayor_and_city_council/documents/5678.pdf.