AVOCA — Upgrading to an advanced life support ambulance is the goal for VAS Ambulance Service Corporation.
Richard Wynne, director of operations for VAS, said he hopes to move VAS from basic life support to ALS by June 2011.
After election nominations were taken from the floor to replace three seats on the VAS Ambulance Service Corporation’s board of directors, Wynne made a presentation to the community members at the annual meeting Saturday, Jan. 16, at the Avoca Community Room.
“I’ve been around for 20 years ... been involved in fundraising and all those things,” Wynne said, as he was newly hired as director of operations in October 2009.
Wynne has been in the emergency services business for over 20 years and recently retired from the Rogers Fire Department.
“I’m going to give you a timeline,” Wynne said, referring to the recent turmoil within VAS. “Not everyone knows the truth, not everyone knows the facts.”
Speaking of the previous administrators of VAS, who resigned in March 2009 and recently began operation of TLC, an advanced life support (ALS) ambulance service in the area, Wynne said “I have the utmost respect to those people. I have no animosity, no things against them whatsoever. I consider them some of my best friends in the world.”
By June 2011, VAS plans to make the switch from basic life support (BLS) to ALS.
“This is huge folks,” he said, explaining that ALS administrators are able to provide cardiac and life saving drugs, as well as shock and defibrillation.
Wynne retraced the steps taken by VAS to switch to ALS over the past year, including the name change to VAS Ambulance Service Corporation in July 2009.
As required by state law, VAS could not run ALS as a volunteer agency.
Wynne also discussed skepticism community members, and even he, had with the board about the way things were being operated.
“You remember, we were all there,” he said to the crowd. “We didn’t get the respect we thought we needed, it was a public outcry ... like a sinking ship.”
Wynne said after the owners resigned, there were many staffing problems and that for nearly two weeks, the ambulance “did not roll when dispatched.”
According to Wynne, the boardthen became involved, hiring new personnel and developing only more problems with overtime compensation. By law, EMS workers have a 40-hour work week, all other time falls under overtime pay.
After calling this “a huge nightmare,” Wynne went on to discuss plans for turning the situation around.
Today, VAS employs six full-time personnel and the ambulance is manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Two EMTs are on board with every dispatch.
According to Wynne, response times are at an all-time low. EMTs are also receiving continued training at the VAS offices in Garfield, Wynne invited any EMTs needing CEU hours to “come on up.”
The delay of switching VAS to ALS comes from both staffing and funding issues. ALS must be administered by a certified paramedic and the equipment is costly.
Wynne plans to send three currently employed EMTs to paramedic school at Northwest Arkansas Community College beginning in June. One employee’s tuition will be paid through a G.I. bill, one by a scholarship from the town of Avoca and the third amount will be items in the 2010 and 2011 budgets, unless another scholarship is received.
The 2010 budget includes $6,000 for ALS equipment, while the 2011 budget will include the remaining equipment and cardiac monitors. Wynne said he is waiting on signatures for a $95,000 grant from the Arkansas Health Department to apply to these costs.
According to Wynne, the goal is to have four fulltime paramedics and an operational ALS by summer of 2011 - without a single rate change to tax payers.
“The rumor going on up in the northern part of the world that we were about to sink was absolute fabrication. I’ve got the numbers right here in my hand. The majority of the public had no idea we were handling this kind of money,” Wynne said of the $272,867.18 revenue in 2009.
VAS paid $261,950.19 in expenses and had 504 EMS responses in the area in 2009.
“My door is always open.
The only way to get better is to go ALS,” Wynne said in closing.
After opening the floor for questions and revealing the results of the election, the meeting adjourned.
The next regular meeting of the board is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb.
9, at the VAS offices in Garfield.
News, Pages 1 on 01/20/2010