Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ambulance services run smoothly amid changes
Ambulance services in Benton and Washington counties have evolved over the past year, officials said.
In Benton County, officials said they hope the rural ambulance service in the county will remain stable with the current lineup of providers and costs. In Washington County, Central EMS officials said they have maintained quality service and the budget while expanding into new areas.
A new emergency medical services provider began operating in Benton County on Jan. 1, when Mercy Health Systems took responsibility for the Hickory Creek area in the southeastern part of the county. Mercy replaced the ambulance service formerly provided to the area by the city of Springdale, which decided to limit service to its own city limits. The county and the city of Bentonville reached an agreement to extend Bentonville’s coverage area to include a small area east of Lowell formerly covered by Springdale.
In Washington County, Central EMS took over ambulance service in Tontitown, Elm Springs, and parts of Johnson and the county from Springdale, also, on Jan. 1. That move required buying a new ambulance, hiring more staff and opening satellite bays in Tontitown and Johnson.
Another ambulance station also opened in northeastern Fayetteville to maintain fast response times leading up to the expansion, said Central EMS Chief Becky Stewart said. The efforts seemed to have worked, officials said.
“(Residents) haven’t noticed any kind of change in service levels,” Stewart said.
In Tontitown, Central EMS staff have been dedicated and professional, said Mayor Paul Colvin, who tagged along on some ambulance runs. No one has complained about the service, he said.
Central EMS staff “want to do what’s right for our citizens,” Colvin said. “For the city of Tontitown, I think there’s been no hiccups so far — or any that I know about.”
The transition for service in Benton County also seems to have gone smoothly.
“It’s going well. The relationship is great with Marshal Watson and his team,” said Bob Patterson, director of regional emergency medical services for Mercy Heath System, of the new Benton County service. “It’s about what we expected. We didn’t anticipate any problems.”
Patterson said Mercy Health System operates ambulance services in four other states, including in southwestern Missouri in an area covering Springfield and 12 other counties. The system is about to begin operating in Barry County, Mo., he said.
Watson, Benton County’s emergency services administrator, said the addition of Mercy Health System gives the county continued coverage.
“At this point, I certainly feel the venture has been a success,” he said. “We’ve gotten positive feedback from Mercy and from the folks in the Hickory Creek area.”
Benton County has agreements with six municipal fire departments — Bella Vista, Bentonville, Gravette, Pea Ridge, Rogers and Siloam Springs — to provide rural ambulance service to nearby unincorporated areas and the county also assists the Northeast Benton County Fire Department in providing service to that group’s coverage area. Watson said call volume has been increasing slowly, about as expected, with the number of calls for service growing from 2,121 in 2013 to 2,209 in 2014 and 2,300 in 2015.
The county’s cost increased for 2016 with the need to create a new system to replace Springdale. To provide service to the Hickory Creek area, the county reached an agreement with Mercy to provide an ambulance and an operating station, Watson said. Mercy hires the staff and manages the day-to-day operation of the service. The new system has a first-year cost of $466,028.
Overall, Benton County’s cost to provide ambulance service increased from about $1.2 million in 2015 to about $1.7 million in 2016. In addition to the added cost of the Mercy system, the city of Gravette changed the formula it used to calculate its costs and the county’s share of that city’s ambulance service costs grew from $80,500 in 2015 to $189,000 in 2016.
Watson said he thinks the current system should be able to operate at present costs for the foreseeable future. The county has a millage with the revenue dedicated to rural ambulance service plus a voluntary EMS millage to offset some costs. The county budgeted about $1 million from those taxes in 2015 and $1.1 million in 2016. The remaining costs are covered from the county’s general fund.
“At this point I don’t see our costs jumping substantially in future years,” Watson said.
The Washington County Regional Ambulance Authority Executive Committee decided last year to use 2010 U.S. Census Bureau population figures to calculate rates for areas relying on the ambulance service. The authority added another $2.06 per capita charge, bringing the cities’ rate to $6.06 per capita and the county’s rate to $17.56 per capita.
The higher fees were meant to help cover costs for a new ambulance that would maintain the best service possible even after the expansion, officials said.
The total revenue from authority members now is expected to be $1.2 million this year, up from about $899,000 in 2015. The total includes the expanded service areas.
The ambulance service expects roughly $10 million in revenue this year, according to Stewart. That is up from about $9 million in 2015.
The money is enough to cover the expansion and plans to improve health care services, Stewart said. That includes plans to focus on improving cardiac arrest survival rates, she said.
However, the ambulance service still needs more sustainable funding, Stewart said. Authority members may discuss a sales tax or other funding methods at their next meeting sometime before the end of the year, she said.
In Benton County, the cities and the county spent several years negotiating how the county should pay its share of the cost of rural ambulance service as required by state law. Rogers Fire Chief Tom Jenkins said the rural ambulance service system seems stable now.
“I think everything has gone pretty well with it,” Jenkins said. “We’ve renewed the contract several times. It seems pretty stable.”
Jenkins said the cost of ambulance service will remain uncertain, the same as other health costs, but the system for providing service to the rural areas of Benton County should continue to work well.
“There’s a lot of stability with the current arrangement because there’s a funding source,” Jenkins said. “Since the residents of the cities and the county voted to impose a millage on themselves, that solved a lot of issues.”
“There’s a lot of stability with the current arrangement because there’s a funding source. Since the residents of the cities and the county voted to impose a millage on themselves, that solved a lot of issues.” — Rogers Fire Chief Tom Jenkins, speaking about the system for providing ambulance service to rural areas of Benton County