CC Minutes - 01/27/09 Joint Elected Officials

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? He thanked the City of Springfield for handling 850 calls annually outside of its ASA, the majority of which were likely in the City of Eugene. ? He agreed with Commissioner Stewart’s suggestion of expanding EMS throughout the county. ? He asked if any of the three chiefs saw tonight’s conversation growing into a conversation to expand into all Fire and EMS services. Chief Groves said the chiefs had had those discussions and were looking for common points for Eugene and Springfield to come together, including training and the Fire Marshal, to gain efficiencies and improve services, especially during times of tight finances. Chief Murphy suggested options could be offered to the city councils that would not lead to service reductions or increased fees. Commissioner Fleenor was for saving lives with available resources but regardless of resources people died. There were a limited amount of resources in Lane County and they were becoming less every day in the current economy. It could be three or four years before improvement is seen. Trying to form a countywide district was “pie in the sky” and it was not reasonable to think the jurisdictions could provide a response time that was appropriate in the rural communities. The issue needed to be looked at from a view of what was reasonable today and not next year. He felt everyone needed to live within available resources. The current fiscal environment was not suitable to talk about expansion. Councilor Ortiz sought an explanation of the contract for non-emergency transport and for the practice of advising people at the scene what the cost of transport would be. Chief Groves said advising people at the scene what the cost of transport would be had started with a change in the state law to inform patients. The non-emergency transport contract for the City of Eugene was a cost avoidance model to reduce costs for non-emergency transports from skilled nursing facilities since over 80 percent of the skilled nursing facilities in the area were located in the Eugene ASA which created a lot of transports between the care facilities and the hospitals. Staff was in the process of negotiating a contract with Rural/Metro Ambulance that would help alleviate the call load and free up limited emergency resources. In response to a question from Councilor Ortiz, Mr. Collins explained calls for Rural/Metro Ambulance service would be routed to a number other than the 9-1-1 system, where they would be dispatched directly from Rural/Metro’s site to the calling agency or individual. Chief Murphy said the skilled nursing facilities were currently clustered around the SHMC University District but this might change over time with the opening of the SHMC RiverBend campus. Springfield Fire and Life Safety would reevaluate the situation and be prepared to respond to those changes. He supported the decision by Eugene and thought it a smart business decision. Councilor Taylor did not think a district would work and people would not want it. She asked if the mileage was included in the cost of transport. She asked if universal health care would solve the problem. She asked what happened when people who were not indigent and did not have health insurance did not pay the bill. She asked if a person who did not ask for or want an ambulance but was transported, would be responsible for paying the bill. MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials— January 27, 2009 Page 12 Lane Board of County Commissioners, Lane Rural Fire/Rescue Board of Directors and Eu- gene and Springfield City Councils