By Caroline Boyer
Bonner Springs Chieftain – November 13, 2013
Edwardsville continues to move forward with its plans to create an in-house EMS service next year beginning on July 1.
The Edwardsville City Council has conducted two work sessions before its October meetings, first reviewing the requirements for operating an ambulance service and then discussing city staff’s suggestions for a Fire Department-based EMS with a combination of full-time emergency medical technicians and volunteers. The service is estimated to cost $138,950 in its first full year in 2015.
Mark Mathies, chief of police and fire, presented a plan that would include 12 full-time EMTs and 10 or more volunteers, in addition to the fire department, which already responds to medical calls. In 12-hour shifts, full-time staffers might be given paid-on-premise pay to be in the building or paid-on-call hours to be a back-up crew.
Michael Webb, city manager, said the city would potentially begin hiring EMS staff in March.
The current Fire Department budget for 2014 is $1,540,339. The city had budgeted $245,000 separately for EMS services; half of that will be paid to the Kansas City Kansas Fire Department for the first half of the year.
After accounting for the other half, it is expected that creating the EMS service will require another $57,200 in Fire Department expenditures for the rest of the year. But much of that added cost will be covered by receipts the department expects to get for ambulance transports.
“We budgeted $245,000 for the service in 2014, and it’s really going to be $250,000,” Webb said. “The long and short of it is it’s basically going to be a wash in 2014.”
In 2015, the city projects total costs at $138,950 after receiving a projected $147,555 in revenue from charges for those transported via ambulance.
The annual EMS service costs include a $55,000 lease payment on an ambulance; $165,205 in personnel costs; and $66,300 in operations costs.
Webb said the city hopes to approve a medical director contract for the EMS service by the end of the year. It also hopes to send out bids for an ambulance lease in early December, with a bid awarded in early January.
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