06/17/1981 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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A review of the fees is currently being undertaken. Mr. Gleason said he will be e reviewing the operational charges. Mr. Obie will be addressing policy changes. Currently the ambulances are operating on a stabilized basis of about 110 to 120 runs per week. Approximately 70 percent of their runs are within the city limits. They have billed between $55~000 and $60~000 over this time period and it looks as though these operations can continue on a break-even basis. There is a mutual aid relationship with Springfield which is working out very well. The average response time per run last week was 3.2 minutes. Since the time that the cities began working with the ambulances~ the average run has been under 3.5 minutes at all times. Seventy percent of the runs are code 3 emergency runs. They feel that part of the success is due to better deployment with five stations rather than with only two locations as MSI had. Mr. Obie stated that there are still technical problems that need to be addressed and this is his concern. With the change from private to public involvement~ there is no need for political involvement. However, he feels there is a need for the council to monitor the situation and receive feedback. He has suggested that a staff review board be created with two persons appointed by the Eugene City Manager, two persons appointed by the Springfield City Manager, one person appointed by the County General Administrator, and one person appointed by the chair of the Lane County Fire Defense Board to represent the rural fire districts. Those officials would be responsible for operation of the system and should provide direction and policy decisions. The staff review board would compile and analyze basic and advanced life support response times in both urban and rural areas, evaluate the success of meeting medical quality of care stan- dards, review the rate structure in comparison with other cities, monitor e revenues and expenditures and billing collections, and monitor any other item which staff. council. or the public feels is appropriate to an analysis of municipal ambulance operation. In addition, this board should come back to the council with a rate-setting procedure recommendation, various reports on income and expenditures, and one year from now a recommendation should come from the board regarding the scope of service. A public hearing could be held at that time. He would like for the City Council and the County Commissioners to hear in a public hearing how citizens feel the ambulance provisions are going. At that point, they could decide if the review would be held on an annual basis. He feels the council should review the rate-setting methodology. It is also important that expenditure and income reports be received on a timely basis. Ms. Wooten asked what the rates are now in comparison with those that MSI charged. Mr. Gleason stated that the interim rates are considerably lower than MSI's and the proposed rates now will be slightly higher than the interim rates, yet less than those of MSI if the council had approved their rate increase request. Bill Haley, Finance, stated that the base rates and mileage are the same as MSI charged, but the mileage is computed differently. Service time at $1.25 per minute is the same as MSI charged, but all other charges or procedures are sUbstantially less than MSI was charging. Ms. Wooten asked how much less the average bill is. Mr. Haley stated that in March of 1981, the average bill from e MINUTES--Eugene City Council , June 17, 1981 Page 9