EMS Details Budget Requests
Fayette County EMS presented its budget requests for next year to the Fayette County Commissioners at a special budget workshop meeting on Thursday, June 4.
Assistant EMS Director Malissa Mieth made the presentation. She has been heading up the department since former EMS Director Sharon Muzny resigned last month.
Among big-ticket items, Mieth requested funding to remount two ambulance boxes on to new chassis. One of the old trucks, a 2012 Dodge, has a poor suspension, a wiring short and generator problems. Mieth said the department has used it as a backup for the last four years. The other truck, a 2014 Dodge, has 230,935 miles. She estimated the cost of two new trucks and the remounts at $330,000.
Mieth also asked Commissioners for funding to replace one stretcher each year. The EMS department uses powered stretchers that couple with a loading device in all of the ambulances. The new power stretcher would cost $19,500. Mieth said the powered stretchers are especially beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic, since it only requires one person to operate. That reduces the number of EMS personnel potentially exposed to the virus.
She asked Commissioners for funding to replace one of two aging support vehicles: a 2004 Ford Explorer with 125,000 miles and a 2010 Ford F-150 supervisor truck with 143,000 miles. She asked Commissioners to replace one of the vehicles in 2021 and estimated the cost at $30,000. The last request for equipment funding was $35,000 for a new EKG monitor. She said the new monitor would replace one of the department’s older monitors that is no longer supported by the manufacturer. Under personnel funding, Mieth asked Commissioners to implement hazardous duty pay for EMS personnel at a rate of $100 per week during any disaster declaration. Mieth said 27 people in her department have been exposed to coronavirus during the pandemic, although none of them have tested positive for the virus.
She asked Commissioners to increase pay for EMS personnel who staff special events. Mieth said she has a hard time finding employees to cover football games and other events where EMS personnel are required. She said many of her employees live outside of the county. She said extra special event pay may encourage employees to cover those events.
Mieth also presented a contingency plan in case St. Mark’s Hospital in La Grange were to close in the future. The plan involved adding another ambulance to the department’s fleet and hiring four to six employees to staff that ambulance. She said the hospital’s closure would likely increase the time ambulances are unavailable (since they would have to travel to out-of-county hospitals). In addition, she said the County may need to implement a community paramedic program that would handle non-emergency calls, which she expects would increase if the hospital were to close. She did not provide a cost estimate for the contingency plan. Commissioners will not take any action on funding requests until they hear from all the other departments.