TOWER- Members of the Tower Ambulance Commission, along with Tower Ambulance Supervisor Dena Suihkonen, and Tower Council Member Kevin Norby will participate in the Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital’s newly-formed Northeast Regional Ambulance Initiative.
The new working group will include directors from the Ely, Tower, and Babbitt ambulance services, an Ely Area Ambulance Service board member, and one representative from each city or township considering involvement in a regionalized ambulance service. The first meeting of the group is set for Oct. 18.
The meeting will be overseen by SafeTech, the group that EBCH hired to produce the regional ambulance study.
The commission discussed the new working group at its meeting on Oct. 7.
“I think this will be to gauge if all three ambulance services are interested in a regional service,” said Suihkonen, who added she heard that SafeTech was working on getting more information on the financial implications of creating a regional service.
“That needs to be the first step,” said TAS member Matt Tuchel. “There are definitely positives and negatives.” The plan would need approval from all three ambulance services to proceed, and it calls for the Ely-Bloomenson Hospital to oversee and manage the regional service.
Members at the TAS meeting all seemed in favor of learning more about a regional service, especially if it could provide ALS service to the area, something the Tower Ambulance Service is not currently equipped to do (though ALS service is provided cooperatively from the Virginia Ambulance Service.) The big outstanding questions about such a regional service include the cost and what type of financial subsidies would be required, as well as how many ambulances would be stationed in the area.
The Tower Ambulance Service is financially more stable than last year, with a bank balance of $78,161 at the end of August, although Suihkonen reported that the service still needs to pay its workmen’s compensation insurance which is around $20,000. The ambulance replacement fund is in a rebuilding phase, at $15,145, after the purchase of the new ambulance in August, though some of the participating townships have yet to make their 2024 payments.
The new ambulance has been driven 2,793 miles so far, Suihkonen reported, and the 2019 rig, rated in good condition, has 92,157 miles, which includes 14,364 miles so far this year. Ambulance calls to date this year are up from previous years.
The commission decided to put the 2013 GMC rig up for sale on an ambulance trading site. Any proceeds from the sale would go into the ambulance replacement fund.
The commission will hold its next regular meeting on Jan. 6, 2025, at 5:30 p.m.