Ambulance board extends wheelchair service until April

FAYETTEVILLE — Central EMS will continue wheelchair service until April 1 to help hospitals and other agencies find a capable replacement.

The service was set to end Jan. 1. The Washington County Regional Ambulance Authority Executive Committee voted 5-1 Wednesday for the extension.

“Folks just aren’t quite ready yet,” said Jimmie Barham Beauchamp, committee health representative.

Beauchamp brought up the extension and said it would help hospitals, other health care facilities and patients.

Beauchamp works at Washington Regional Medical Center but was not representing the hospital Wednesday, she said. She is the hospital representative on the board.

Other representatives from the hospital asked for

the extension and help creating standards for a new provider, Central EMS Chief Becky Stewart said.

Three companies are interested in providing the service for the hospital, but there are no federal standards, officials said. The hospital wants to make sure people are safe by having Central EMS help create standards to make sure the new providers are capable, said Jack Morris, vice president of logistics at Washington Regional Medical Center.

“Are we putting our patients in a safe situation?” Morris asked.

The goal is to have a smooth transition, Morris said.

A group of officials met to discuss the problem last week, Stewart said. Many facilities want the service expanded, but it would cost the ambulance service thousands, she said. Officials decided in September to drop the wheelchair service because it is expensive to run, Stewart said.

The service loses roughly $20,000 per van every year, Stewart said previously.

The service also has four vehicles, two of which need thousands of dollars in repairs, said Steve Harrison, assistant chief. One vehicle’s repairs could cost $25,000 or more, he said.

The ambulance service also already reassigned employees who were dedicated to running the service, Stewart said. To continue the service, an ambulance must be taken out of service or staff be brought back on overtime, Harrison said.

Discontinuing the service was to coincide with Central EMS expanding service to Tontitown, Elm Springs and part of Johnson and the county. Springdale will not provide ambulance service for those areas after Jan. 1.

New ambulances are ordered, and staff is being trained, Stewart said.

The wheelchair service is not directly tied to the expansion, but Stewart said previously the budget is tight and the service expensive. The extension was the “tipping point” for discontinuing the wheelchair service, Stewart said previously.

The ambulance service gave a 90-day notice to discontinue the service, but that was not enough time, Morris said.

Discontinuing the service so soon also affects other health care facilities, including physical therapy, rehabilitation, dialysis and cancer treatment, Beauchamp and others said.

Morris did not commit Wednesday to helping cover costs for extending the service. Stewart said Central EMS probably will not increase its $35 fee for the service. That fee rate was raised last year, she said.

The authority should have about $41,000 available to defray the extension costs, Stewart said.

More meetings with health care representatives will happen soon, Stewart. The meeting will include representatives from nine to 11 facilities, she said.