By Laura Swanson – Editor
We dove into the Ordinance 41 – Tillamook County Emergency Medical Services Ordinance* – regarding RESPONSE TIMES. EMS requirements in the County’s Ordinance 41 were changed in 8/22 – from 15 minutes to 20 minutes – INCREASING response time allowance, against the request of Fire Department chiefs.
The response time data that Adventist shared is misleading and does not truly represent the ambulance service response. AH is not staging ambulances in north or south county – with only two ambulances staffed, so the data shows response times averaging 12 minutes, when most all the calls are in Tillamook central.
Several community members have reported times when 911 dispatch has advised them to “drive themselves or have someone drive them” to the hospital as an ambulance wasn’t available, and they are unable to determine when one might be.** EMS utilizes a statewide communications system that shows all the EMS dispatch reports – it was observed that Tillamook at one point in the near past had multiple calls come in requesting an ambulance within a short period of time. Two ambulances responded, five victims were waiting …. How often is this happening? Should it be happening at all?
As we charge into the summer season, and the population increases ten-fold, local fire departments will continue to “take up the slack”, but the community needs to be aware of the current reduced availability of ambulance service. Current and former Adventist EMS employees are hesitant to speak out, but after the mis-leading information provided by Adventist, they were compelled to provide a more accurate view of the situation.
Current staff is worn out, averaging 60% of their time at work – 96 hours straight. Extraordinary circumstances – they feel an obligation to the community, to their fellow EMS crews. “You gotta show up … when/if you don’t, you’re putting an even greater workload on a co-worker who’s already ‘covered’ other shifts.” Heck, Eric Swanson himself was covering shifts last week for the ambulance service. We need to be able to ‘take a break.’ We need to be able to take mental health days and not be chastised and guilted into working.”
We continue to gather statements, such as this one about other issues about health and safety of the EMS crews:
“I am a former employee of the ambulance department. I’d like to provide a statement in regards to unsafe work environment. One of our stations had multiple leaks in it, to the extent of visible water running down walls inside the station as well as water stains coming out of electrical sockets. At one point in time there were also mushrooms coming through the carpet in one of the bedrooms. I often times got off shift from being in this station and developed sinus infections. I stated my concerns over this issue multiple times and was told to submit reports through the online maintenance program but was told the hospital could not go in and fix the issues due to the lease agreement. I felt strongly that this issues were not being appropriately dealt with and there was lack of concern for our health and safety. This was a major contributor to why I quit. I felt leery to report these issues to OSHA due to the fact that I was so vocal about the issue and feared reprimand. I was truly heartbroken to leave, my employees and fellow first responders were a pleasure to work with and I consider them family but the toll that working for Tillamook ambulance put on me outweighed this.”
What can be done? We will continue to gather statements and investigate the situation. County commissioners should address deficiencies in the service and request plans from Adventist Health to fulfill the requirements for full county ambulance service. Another idea that would relieve the burden from Adventist Health would be to establish a county Ambulance Service, operated cooperatively with the fire departments to provide better countywide coverage.
If you have information or statement about issues with Adventist Health ambulance services or other concerns, please contact editor@tillamookcountypioneer.net.
* https://www.co.tillamook.or.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/ordinance/22698/ordinance_41_-_amendment_7.pdf
** The Tillamook 911 Dispatch office has stated that they will send an ambulance for every request, even for nonlife-threatening emergencies. We will update and correct this article as soon as possible to clarify the original quote. Dispatch emphasized that the ambulance wait times and the ambulance service are not related to dispatch, and speculated that the original community member may have called the non-emergency sheriff line, or hospital directly.
