CC Minutes - 01/27/09 Joint Elected Officials

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Chief Murphy said it was more than a theoretical concept, and the answer was yes, it could be done and it was a matter of public policy from a standpoint of resources. The cities and the county had set an expectation. He added it was also a matter of public policy on what should be done to save lives when it took longer to respond. Commissioner Fleenor asked how often policy makers met to consider the response time issue. Chief Murphy said the ambulance service area was initiated in compliance with state law in the early 1980’s. The system had been upgraded and response time standards for urban, suburban, rural and frontier locations had been reset twice since then. The Eugene City Council and Springfield City Council had met five times on the issue since 1981 and had made adjustments. Chief Groves said for Eugene’s ASA, and a population approaching 190,000 people, the City of Eugene had three ambulances. He said that capacity had been exceeded the previous night due to a critical incident, and that occurred frequently. He opined the department was already marginally staffed. Councilor Clark thanked fire personnel and staff and other providers for attending this evening’s meeting to help elected officials identify the issues. He averred ambulance transport was a core service. He asked who decided the ASA borders and what percentage of the calls were social and behavioral issues that could be better served by other responders. Chief Murphy said the BCC determined the ASA borders. Chief Groves added although coding issues made it difficult to make a precise assessment, the number of responses for social and behavioral issues was increasing as there were more people on the streets and down on their luck. As the social service systems in the country and the community continued to crumble, the problem was getting worse. The social and behavior issue calls were frequently given to CAHOOTS. It was not productive use of the EMS system, including the hospitals, to take social and behavioral patients to the ER. EMS personnel attempted to direct people to other sources of help including Buckley House. Chief Murphy stated that over 25 percent of the time when called out, his agency did not do transports. The system responded in good faith to 9-1-1 calls where initial triage occurred with final triage occurring at the scene. Chief Groves said a challenge for 9-1-1 was that they could only deal with the information they were given, which often was very little, and people in the field were good with triage. Councilor Ortiz thanked everyone for attending yet another evening meeting. She asked the BCC to place the ASA on a future agenda for reevaluation. She did not support a fee for 9-1-1 calls that did not result in transport noting that people often waited for a long time before calling. Based on her professional experience in hospital emergency rooms, sick people who should have called 9-1-1 drove themselves when they should not have. She emphasized the need to continue to lobby the Congressional delegation for higher Medicare reimbursement. She observed Springfield had a lower population than Eugene while it had the same number of medic units. Mr. Grey said Springfield’s ambulance capacity fit the city’s needs. MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials— January 27, 2009 Page 9 Lane Board of County Commissioners, Lane Rural Fire/Rescue Board of Directors and Eu- gene and Springfield City Councils