Boyceville ambulance service making progress
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
BOYCEVILLE — In spite of efforts by some district residents and disgruntled former EMTs, the Boyceville ambulance service has been making good progress over the past year.
Peter Score, representative for the Town of Sheridan and chair of the Boyceville Community Ambulance District, said he wanted to present a “year in review” to the ambulance board at the January 4 meeting “so our neighbors can see how we have been serving them.”
The last meeting at the ambulance service station was in January of 2022, and WEAU TV-13 was there to cover the meeting, Score said, noting that Wayne Dow, director of the ambulance service, had not invited the television station to the meeting.
Readers should note that an ambulance district board meeting is an open public meeting that can be attended by any members of the public or any member of the news media without an invitation.
Readers should also note, however, that an ambulance service director might ask a television station to be at a meeting if there was something particularly newsworthy occurring, such as presenting a length-of-service award to a retiring EMT who had served for 40 years.
But no — it appeared that the television station had been invited by someone other than Dow to add to the volatile and hostile situation that already existed.
Town board members had texted veiled threats to other town board members who served on the ambulance board.
Residents spoke during public comments, sounding ugly, fearful and bullying.
Mutual aid agreements among fire departments and ambulance services had been violated when one ambulance service had invoiced another ambulance service for what should have been mutual aid to the fire department.
Emergency medical technicians had attempted to extort and manipulate the ambulance district board, saying they would come back to work if the board gave in to their demands to fire the current director of the service and hire the person they wanted to serve as director.
An interim ambulance service director had used expletives and obscene language in official written communications with other EMTs.
At the meeting last January, Dow reported that two EMTs were on duty in December of 2021 for the Boyceville ambulance service 30.8 percent of the time while one EMT was on duty 69.2 percent of the time, Score told the ambulance district board.
Two EMTs are required to be able to transport a patient.
In December of 2021, the Boyceville ambulance service was out of service for 1.8 percent of the time, Score said.
Invoice
Last January, the Boyceville ambulance service had received a bill for $500 from the Glenwood City ambulance service for providing mutual aid on a fire stand-by when Boyceville could not be at the stand-by, Score said.
Boyceville’s former fire chief, Cory Green, encouraged the Boyceville ambulance service to pay the bill, he said.
The majority of the ambulance board agreed with not paying for the mutual aid, although representatives from Hay River and Tiffany thought the invoice should be paid, Score said.
Fire board members also asked if the ambulance district could afford to pay for the coverage agreements, Score said.
Since Boyceville lost a large number of EMTs when the EMTs said they would not work for Boyceville unless the ambulance board gave in to their demands, the Boyceville ambulance service entered into coverage agreements with Colfax, Menomonie and Glenwood City to respond to ambulance calls when Boyceville could not find enough EMTs to be on duty to transport patients.
Although $17,000 had been budgeted in 2022 for service agreements with other ambulance districts, in the last 12 months, Boyceville has spent $25,550 on coverage agreements, Score said.
On the other hand, $227,760 had been budgeted in 2022 for EMT pay, and because the roster was down, Boyceville paid $181,500 for EMTs, so the ambulance service was under budget for EMT pay, and overall, the budget came out fine financially, he said.
Misconduct
Score said he had received multiple calls from ambulance district residents about the $500 bill for mutual aid asking if the bill was illegal.
At the time, Score said he did not know whether the invoice represented any illegal activity.
The Boyceville Community Fire District Board manages the fire chief, and the ambulance district board manages the ambulance chief, he noted.
In October, a town board member suggested that Score speak to someone in law enforcement about the bill for mutual aid and how it came about.
“To all concerned citizens, check (Wisconsin state statutes) 946.12 (4) and draw your own conclusions,” he said.
Chapter 946 of Wisconsin’s statutes deals with “Crimes Against Government and Its Administration,” and 946.12 deals with “Misconduct in Public Office.”
To find Wisconsin statutes, do a Google search for “table of contents Wisconsin statutes.” Clicking on the numbers next to a particular chapter or a statute takes you directly to the relevant section.
The statues are updated regularly. When the Tribune Press Reporter checked, the statutes had last been updated January 7, 2023.
More coverage
In February, the coverage time by two EMTs increased to 53.1 percent of the time while one EMT was duty for 46.9 percent of the time (compared to one being on duty 67.5 percent of the time in January), and the roster contained 15 people, Score said.
In March, two EMTs were on duty 61.7 percent of the time, while one EMT was on duty 37.8 percent of the time, and ambulance service was out of service for three hours, and the roster had decreased to 13, he said.
Dow has reported at several meetings that some of the EMTs on the Boyceville roster are college students who work as EMTs when they are home on vacations and breaks, which accounts for seasonal decrease in the roster.
April, May, June
In April, there were two EMTs on duty for 54.5 percent of the time, while one EMT was on duty for 45.5 percent of the time, Score said.
The ambulance board also conducted the annual review for the ambulance chief and were satisfied with his performance, he said, noting that a chair and vice-chair also were elected for the ambulance board.
In May, there were two EMTs on duty 43.8 percent of the time, and one was on duty 56.2 percent of the time, and 14 were on the roster, Score said.
The audit of the ambulance services finances was finished, too, he said.
In addition, the regional Emergency Services coordinator received a call from a resident in the Town of New Haven making accusations about the ambulance service chief, Score said.
In June, two EMTs were on duty for 57.6 percent of the time, and one was on duty for 34.1 percent of the time. Boyceville was out of service for 8.3 percent of the time, he said,
The ambulance board also approved a motion in June to downgrade to a flex service of either Advanced EMTs or Basic-EMTs, Score said.
Being able to operate under the flex designation of either being an advanced service or a basic service gives the ambulance service more flexibility in scheduling EMTs.
July, Aug., Sept.
In July, two people were on duty for 66.1 percent of the time, and one was on duty for 33.1 percent of the time, with 13 on the roster, Score said.
In August, two EMTs were on duty 77 percent of the time, and one was on duty for 23 percent of the time, he said.
In his report, Score indicated that the roster also remained at 13 for both September and October.
Readers should also note that when the story says “two EMTs were on duty,” that could actually mean two EMTs, or it could mean one EMT and one Emergency Medical Responder.
By state law, an ambulance can transport a patient if there is a certified A-EMT and an EMR to drive the ambulance.
If only one EMT is on duty, the ambulance can be taken out on the call, and the EMT can treat the patient, but the patient cannot be transported.
In September, two EMTs were on duty for 82.5 percent of the time, and one was on duty for 17.5 percent of the time, Score said.
Oct., Nov., Dec.
In October, two EMTs were on duty 62.5 percent of the time and one was on duty for 37.5 percent of the time, he said.
Also in October, the roster increased to 16 people, Score said.
The 2023 budget and assessments were presented as well, and a Flex grant was awarded to the ambulance service, he said.
In November, two EMTs were on duty for 85.1 percent of the time, and one was on duty for 14.7 percent of the time, and the roster increased to 17 people, Score said.
Earlier in the meeting, Dow reported that two EMTs were on duty in December for 82.6 percent of the time, and one was on duty for 17.4 percent of the time.
The roster in December contained 10 EMTs, five A-EMTs and two EMRs, he said.
Score reminded ambulance board members that at the beginning of the year, the Boyceville ambulance service was “challenged by the roster” and that the roster is now up to 17 people with two EMTs on duty for 85 percent of the time.
According to a report Dow submitted to the ambulance board, the Boyceville ambulance service also has cut the on-scene time in half over the past two years.
In 2020, the average time on scene was nearly 31 minutes, and in 2022, the average time on scene was 14 minutes and 46 seconds.
The report shows that the on-scene time varied in the municipalities by one or two minutes up or down, with 16 minutes as the average on-scene time in Hay River and New Haven, while the average on-scene time in Sheridan was just shy of 12 minutes, and was 13 minutes and 34 seconds in Stanton.
The sooner the ambulance leaves the scene, the sooner the patient is on the way to the hospital where more advanced medical care is available.
