Item D: Eugene Fire & EMS Department Ambulance Service Area Realignment

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ton. This would preserve Eugene rescue and transport resources for emergency avail- ability in the more immediate Eugene metro area. Second, the boundary change would allow for growth of the Lane Rural ambulance service, both geographically and in terms of revenue. It also would pave the way for possible placement of a Lane Rural ambulance in the Veneta area, although that de- ployment decision would ultimately be made by the provider agency based on further analysis. The above objectives would not be achieved without some revenue impact to Eugene Fire & EMS, which would be transferring an estimated 850 calls per year to Lane Ru- ral. This represents revenue estimated at $500,000. That figure, however, represents raw revenue only. It should be recognized that, in expanding its service territory, Lane Rural would incur additional operating expenses that would offset the revenue to a great extent; conversely, Eugene’s actual net loss of revenue would be smaller because rural calls cost more operationally than urban ones, and also because fewer Eugene-based calls will need to be handled by other agencies. Actual calculations of the net effect would depend on deployment configurations subsequent to an ASA boundary change, and also on actual call experience under that scenario. Mobile Health Care System 6. A Mobile Health Care (MHS) system links prehospital emergency medical services with several types of non-emergency medical care in a network of 24-hour healthcare. In Central Lane County, these would include fire/paramedic first response fire en- gines and ambulances, a private non-emergency ambulance contractor, wheelchair transport vehicles, and a mobile primary care provider known as Med Express. The MHS system is designed to triage phone calls from the public for help on illness and injury and match the level of response more closely with the level of care need- ed. The responding caregiver determines if the patient can be safely treated and re- leased without further care or needs additional care. If additional care is needed, the caregiver determines whether the patient must be seen immediately or later and whether the patient needs transportation to a doctor's office, clinic, or emergency department. The goal is to improve early access to advice and direct the patient to the most appro- priate level of care to match the nature and severity of illness or injury. This is de- signed to improve the quality of care while lowering the overall cost. Currently, only the fire units and private non-emergency ambulance service are linked. Grant funding is being sought to link all other parts of the system and demon- strate the efficacy of the MHS network. Continue to Lobby Congress for Relief 7. From a national perspective, the effect of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 on ambu- lance services has been very small in comparison to the effects on physicians, hospi- tals, and other health care providers. Nonetheless, ambulance associations and local 7