By LeAnn R. Ralph
BOYCEVILLE — Members of the Boyceville Community Ambulance District Board have completed a performance evaluation for the EMS chief and are satisfied with his work.
The performance evaluation for Wayne Dow, director of the Boyceville ambulance service, was completed in open session during the Boyceville ambulance district board’s April 13 meeting.
An annual review of the chief’s work over the past year is part of the ambulance district’s bylaws, said Peter Score, representative for the Town of Sheridan and chair of the ambulance district board.
Although the agenda for the meeting included a closed session under Wisconsin state statutes for considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation, Dow asked for the review to be done in open session.
Dow has the right to ask for the performance evaluation to be conducted in open session, and he has asked that it be completed in open session, Score said.
Using the job description for the EMS chief, the ambulance district board considered each element of the job description as part of their review.
Licensed AEMT
The first element of the job description is whether the ambulance service director is a licensed Advanced Emergency Medical Technician or higher.
The answer to that is — yes, Score said.
Meetings
The next element of the job description is whether the EMS chief meets regularly with the ambulance district board.
The answer is — yes, Score said.
At each monthly meeting of the ambulance district board, Dow gives a report on the previous month and answers questions posed by board members.
Service license
The EMS chief must also maintain the license of the ambulance service.
Score said he had called the regional EMS coordinator to make sure the license was up-to-date for the Boyceville ambulance service — and yes, the license is current.
Score also said he had asked if the regional EMS coordinator had received any complaints about Dow.
The regional EMS coordinator said he was aware of past employee problems but that Dow was not in violation of any regulations, and the Boyceville ambulance service is not in violation of any regulations, he said.
The regional EMS coordinator also said Dow has always been courteous and forthright in any communications with the regional EMS coordinator, Score said.
Other meetings
Does the EMS chief meet with state and local representatives?
Score said he did not know all of the opportunities that may have been available for such meetings but that the pandemic has not been conducive to very many meetings.
Dow said he has attended Dunn County chief’s meetings held in Durand, Menomonie and Boyceville and that there was not a county-level EMS organization.
In addition, Dow said he receives the minutes from the Chippewa Valley Advisory Committee meetings, although that particular committee wants to reduce the size of the committee.
Dow had planned to attend a tabletop training exercise for a disaster, but was called out with the ambulance to an emergency and could not attend.
There will be more tabletop exercises in the future, he said.
Dow also attended the first meeting with representatives for the Village of Colfax and the Colfax Rescue Squad pertaining to a possible merger of the two services, and there were two regional EMS representatives at the Zoom meeting as well, Score said.
Score said he had talked with the other EMS chiefs in Dunn County and that yes, Dow has met them and has talked with them.
Staff schedules
Does the EMS chief schedule staff to cover shifts?
Dow, and the ambulance district board, have been dealing with the issue for months, Score said.
During his report to the board, Dow said the Boyceville ambulance service has five advanced EMTs and seven basic EMTs who are active.
There are five who are inactive, and Dow said he planned to talk to them about whether they were planning to become active.
One local person passed the EMT test the week of the meeting, and two more are currently in EMT class and two additional emergency medical responders (EMRs) are waiting on their certification, Dow said.
People with EMR certification can go out on ambulance calls with an advanced EMT. Since two are required to transport a patient, the advanced EMT can take care of the patient while the EMR drives the ambulance.
Two additional people are signed up for the EMT classes starting in June, and one is signed up for the EMR portion of the class, Dow said during his report.
Run reports
Does the EMS director review and submit run reports to the billing agency?
Dow said he reviews the reports from ambulance runs and then submits them to Andres Medical Billing.
As EMS chief, Dow said he also reviews the reports to make sure that the ambulance service is meeting the requirements of Medicare for providing basic life support and advanced life support.
Score noted that he had attended one of the EMT meetings and that Dow reviewed the run reports with the EMTs.
Bills
Does the EMS chief review and pay all the bills for the ambulance service?
The answer is — yes, Score said.
Dow has been forthright when board members have asked questions about the bills on the list that they review at each meeting, he said.
Professional organization
Does the EMS chief maintain a professional organization?
Maintaining a professional organization has been “a work in progress over the past 12 months,” Score said.
The EMTs, the EMS director and the ambulance district board have all been working on it, he said.
New EMTs
Does the EMS chief recruit new EMTs and maintain a recruitment program?
Recruiting EMTs and maintaining a recruitment program is also a work in progress, Score said.
Captains
Does the EMS chief meet with the ambulance service captains on a monthly basis?
The Boyceville ambulance service does not have any captains right now, Dow said.
When the service regains a full staff, captains may be part of the staff again, he said.
If captains are part of the staff, Dow said their salaries would come off his salary as EMS director.
The offer was made long ago to deduct the captains’ salaries from the EMS director’s salary, and “that offer still stands,” Dow said.
Ned Hahn, representative for the Town of Hay River, asked how many would have to be on staff before Dow would appoint captains.
The staff would have to include at least 20 EMTs, but 30 would be better, Dow said.
Public education
Does the EMS chief create and maintain a public education program?
The COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to have a public education program, Dow said.
The Boyceville ambulance service does offer Radon home test kits, and the ambulance service offers blood pressure checks, he said.
The Boyceville EMS station also was offered for COVID vaccinations, Dow noted.
What about a presence in the local school system? Score asked.
Dow said he had left voicemails for Tyler Moy, the Boyceville middle school and high school principal, but that they had not yet been able to set anything up.
Are you planning on pursuing an education program in the schools? asked Sonya Zebro, representative for the Village of Boyceville.
“Yes,” Dow said, adding that he will call Moy again.
Delegation
Does the EMS chief delegate responsibility as necessary to maintain a smooth-running service?
Again, it comes down to numbers, Score said.
Regarding a smooth-running service, Dow said he has been analyzing run times.
The average scene time is 16.5 minutes, but 10 percent of the time, EMTs are on scene for more than 25 minutes, he said.
The numbers have been significantly higher in the past, Dow said.
The response time — how long it takes EMTs to get out the door with the ambulance and to the scene — also is important, he said.
A call to New Haven, as opposed to a call in Boyceville, will take longer to actually reach the scene, Dow said.
If Dow is alone at the station, or there are two EMTs at the station, the ambulance is out the door in three minutes or less. If he is coming from home, it might be six minutes before the ambulance is out the door, Dow said.
“Overall, they are not bad times. Could they be better? Yes. Especially when you are the one on the other end,” he said.
Personal experience
Chuck Siler, representative for the Town of Tiffany, said he had suffered a stroke recently, had debated about calling the Boyceville ambulance, and in the end, his wife had driven him.
If there is only one EMT on duty, and the EMT cannot drive the ambulance, then why respond to the scene? Siler asked, adding that he “got lucky” for medical care but that there was no time to spare.
If Boyceville had been called, Dow said he would have been able to maintain Siler’s airway until Glenwood City ambulance arrived.
When he is alone, Dow said he requests another ambulance right away, and in this case, he would have asked for Glenwood City, and Glenwood City would have arrived five or 10 minutes later.
“You being there for assessment has value,” Hahn said.
“Yes,” Dow said.
When the ambulance arrives from another service, because he has been able to assess the situation, the second ambulance crew would know what they are dealing with — whether the patient will need clot-breaking drugs or some other treatment, Dow said.
“He has put in a lot of time to deal with the shortage of staffing, and under the circumstances, he has tried to increase the staffing,” said Luke Montgomery, representative for the Village of Boyceville.
“I commend him for his determination through this, to serve our neighbors while other forces are working against him … I want to thank you for continuing to serve us,” Score said.
The consensus of the members of the Boyceville Community Ambulance District Board is that they are satisfied with Dow’s job performance.
About a half dozen community members attended the ambulance district board meeting, and many of them applauded the board’s consensus on Dow’s performance evaluation.
Other business
In other business, the Boyceville Community Ambulance District Board:
• Learned that there have been 85 runs so far this year, and since the last meeting, there have been 11 transports by Boyceville, two calls for Menomonie that resulted in no transports, four calls with no transports, one call with no patient, one called cancelled enroute, and one fire call.
• Learned that so far in April, there has been one person on call for 57.4 percent of the time and two people on call for 42.6 percent of the time.
• Learned that Boyceville has received two funding assistance awards from the state of Wisconsin in the amounts of $3,803.80 and $2,842.07.
• Unanimously elected Peter Score as the chair of the ambulance district board for the next year.
• Unanimously elected Marv Prestrud as vice-chair of the ambulance district board for the next year.
The Boyceville Community Ambulance District Board meets next at 7 p.m. May 11 in the Boyceville Village Hall.
