The Hancock County Board is still weighing its options to improve ambulance service. The county is under a ”plan of corrections” to address lapses by ambulance crew members.
One option is to hire an outside firm to run the service.
The board has heard several presentations from Peoria-based Advanced Medical Transport. The non-profit company provides service in central Illinois. CEO Andrew Rand said the company could take over the county's operation for $875,000 a year under a five year contract. He said the transition would take about 90 days. AMT would also require a $50,000 down payment to begin service. He said the type of ambulance services and personnel would not change.
He said, “We'd add on top of that an additional advanced life support capacity through our site manager, use his or her paramedic training skills and equipment to run calls from wherever they are. And I think we could produce another 60-70 hours of capacity (per week).”
He explained the supervisor would have a vehicle equipped to provide ALS service.
The county currently pays about $655,000 each year to support the ambulance
EMS board member Donald Haage said the county is moving to correct the problems. He said a newly-enacted policy will require the entire crew of an ambulance to sign-off on checks of their equipment. Previously, one member of the crew would sign-off on the “rig checks.”
He also said the board has strengthened policies to discipline ambulance crew members for failure to do the rig checks.
County board chairman David Walker was disappointed that Quincy-area EMS coordinator Dr. Kelly Cox was unable to attend a special board meeting this week. Walker wanted him to present an update on the situation. Cox has been meeting with ambulance district stakeholders.