Boyceville ambulance district approves condition of employment agreement
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By LeAnn R. Ralph
BOYCEVILLE — The Boyceville Community Ambulance District Board has approved a condition of employment agreement that stipulates EMTs must reimburse Boyceville for the full cost of training if they stop working for the district within 24 months.
Wayne Dow, director of the Boyceville ambulance service, reported at the December 15 meeting that he had talked to five individuals who are interested in taking the EMT training.
At the November meeting, ambulance district board members had decided the ambulance district should pay for the cost of training as an incentive to attract more EMTs to Boyceville.
The cost to become a certified EMT is about $2,000.
According to the agreement, if an EMT resigns or is fired for cause within the first 24 months of the hire date, the EMT agrees to reimburse the Boyceville Community Ambulance District for the full cost of training for the EMT certification that the employee did not possess at the time he or she was hired.
The agreement also authorizes the Boyceville ambulance district to deduct any reimbursement that would be due from the EMT’s wages, establishes that the EMT is responsible for the remainder of the cost and also establishes that the Boyceville ambulance district will pursue collections from an outside source if the cost of training is not reimbursed.
Several members of the ambulance district board said they would like Dow to include wording in the agreement that would pro-rate the reimbursement.
For example, if an EMT had worked for 18 months but then had to move somewhere else, perhaps because of a spouse’s job opportunity, the EMT would not have to reimburse the full cost of training, but would instead owe 25 percent of the cost of the training.
In other words, instead of owing the full $2,000 for training, the EMT would owe $500 for the remaining six months that he or she did not work to fill out the full 24 months.
The agreement also stipulates that the EMT will perform 48 hours of paid on-call EMT work on average, per month, over the first 24 months from the hire date.
Dow also noted that wherever the agreement states EMT, it should also state EMR — emergency medical responder.
People who are taking the EMT training can be certified as an EMR before the training is completed. EMRs can go out on ambulance runs with someone who is certified as an advanced EMT.
If the Boyceville ambulance service could gain a couple of people certified as EMRs, that would allow Boyceville to transport patients instead of calling for help from another ambulance service.
Boyceville has agreements with the Menomonie, Colfax and Glenwood City ambulance services to respond when Boyceville cannot transport a patient.
Over the past several months, Boyceville has paid at least several thousand dollars per month to other ambulance services when Boyceville could not transport.
In his report to the ambulance district board, Dow indicated Boyceville had received 28 calls for service since the last meeting and that Boyceville had transported seven patients, Menomonie had transported seven, Glenwood City had transported five and Colfax had transported one patient.
At $500 per transport, that amounts to $6,500 paid to other ambulance services.
In addition to the transports by Boyceville, Glenwood City and Colfax, the patient on one of the calls was flown out to a hospital, four calls were “no transports” and three of the calls were for fire stand-by
Amendments
Russell Hitz, representative for the Town of Hay River, said Dow should bring the employment agreement back to the ambulance district board at the January meeting with the amendments that had been discussed.
“There’s no sense in hurrying. We should get it right,” he said.
Chuck Siler, representative for the Town of Tiffany, said that delaying approval of the condition of employment agreement could cause the Boyceville ambulance service to miss out on opportunities for gaining more EMTs.
The five people Dow had talked to about becoming EMTs would potentially benefit from the condition of employment agreement.
The classes run from January to mid-May, Dow noted.
Five people taking the EMT training at one time would put the ambulance service over-budget for training — “but I’d be happy for that,” he said.
The Boyceville Community Ambulance District Board authorized Dow to amend the agreement by adding EMR and including wording for pro-rating the reimbursement for tuition and approved the condition of employment agreement with the proposed amendments.
In addition to the Towns of Hay River and Tiffany, members of the Boyceville ambulance district include the Village of Boyceville and the Towns of New Haven, Sheridan, Sherman and Stanton.
Tuition policy
The Boyceville ambulance district board also discussed the tuition reimbursement policy and procedure that Dow submitted to the board.
One section of the policy stipulates that if the employee is employed outside BCAD and is being reimbursed for tuition by another ambulance service, the employee is not eligible for reimbursement from Boyceville.
Paul Heifner, representative for the Town of Sherman, said that if an EMT is working for Boyceville, the EMT should be reimbursed for tuition by Boyceville, too.
That would mean an EMT would be double-reimbursed for tuition, Dow said.
If EMTs received an extra $2,000, perhaps Boyceville would get more EMTs, remarked Ned Hahn, representative for the Town of Hay River.
Dow said he envisioned that if an EMT worked for two different ambulance services that the ambulance services would figure out a way to split the cost for training.
Tim Fasbender, who works for the Menomonie fire department and volunteers in Boyceville, noted that according to state law, EMTs could not accept two reimbursements from two different ambulance services because the payments involve tax dollars.
If the EMT worked 66 percent of the time for Colfax, for example, and 33 percent of the time for Boyceville, the payment for the training could be split accordingly, Heifner said.
The reimbursement could be done at the discretion of the EMS chief, who could use his judgement to come to an agreement with the other ambulance service, said Pete Score, representative for the Town of Sheridan and chair of the ambulance district board.
That would be an intergovernmental agreement, Siler noted.
The EMT would be reimbursed for the tuition but it would not result in an over-reimbursement, he said.
Dow pointed out that in tuition reimbursement police and procedure document, he would also have to include EMR wherever the policy stated EMT.
The policy stipulates that the employees must work for BCAD for a minimum of 24 months to obtain full reimbursement and that the employee will work 48 hours per month over the 24-month period.
The policy states, too, that the employee will not receive reimbursement of tuition if employment is terminated prior to the end of a six-month period.
The Boyceville Ambulance District Board agreed Dow should amend the tuition reimbursement policy and procedure as discussed and bring it back to the board for further consideration at the January meeting.
The Boyceville Community Ambulance District Board meets next on January 12 at 7 p.m. at the Boyceville ambulance station.
Other business
In other business, the Boyceville Ambulance District Board:
• Approved having radon kits available for ambulance district residents at a cost of $15 each. The radon kits started out initially as a grant program, so the kits were free to residents, Dow said. The kits that were on hand expired, and Dow had to purchase more of them. In the last eight months, people have requested two kits, he said.
• Approved purchasing a Lucas device (automated cardio pulmonary resuscitation). The cost of the device is $14,845, and the ambulance service has $14,645 that could go toward the purchase, plus there are some other funds available, Dow said. The manufacturer has a maintenance program for $1,500 per year that includes a battery, he said. Dow estimated that the Lucas device could have a 10-year life expectancy, although the life expectancy would depend on how much the Lucas device is used. According to the finance report provided to the board, the Boyceville ambulance service had $73,136.54 in savings as of November 30.
