It’s my belief that the Ely Hospital/SafeTech regional ambulance service plan needs to be fleshed out and pursued because it’s a logical opportunity to modernize the service into Advanced Life Support (something you really appreciate if you’re having a stroke) and to make it sustainable. At the TAAS Commission meeting in Tower last week, Ely Hospital’s Patti Banks laid out an exciting possible future, including having telemedicine communication in our area’s ambulances. The consultant has identified a way, through consolidation of the Ely, Babbitt and Tower services, to recover much more of the actual cost of ambulance runs. That’s good, but it won’t cover the full cost of the modern ambulance service. I believe that Ely, Babbitt, Tower and the many townships in the consolidated area can and should afford to create an Emergency Medical Services Special Taxing District (Minn. §144F.01) to guarantee sustainability. It’s worth it and it can be designed fairly.
It’s also my belief that the Ely Hospital needs to own and operate the consolidated service because it’s a serious, important, costly business that needs professional full-time administration. I prefer that instead of any form of local “joint powers” boards, and I say that after having attended plenty of these types of meetings in the area. Joint powers members often show up unprepared and things often devolve into smart remarks, not smart thinking. This is a serious business and I believe we need to put our trust in the Ely Hospital. It isn’t something new, the reality is that hospitals run very successful Advanced Life Support ambulance services throughout Minnesota. It actually isn’t very complicated— the path forward mostly needs cooperation and serious planning. We have a bit of time to do this, keeping in mind that the one-time stopgap rural ambulance funding from the Legislature this year will run out.
I sure encourage the three cities and all of the townships to pitch in with the Ely Hospital and the consultant to keep the patient and ambulance staff first in our thoughts.
Lee Peterson
Greenwood Township