Following its early morning meeting Tuesday, the county’s Ambulance Service Advisory Committee presented Washington County supervisors with a seven-point plan for a county-run service. 

Top item was establishing a county-operated EMS department tasked to provide ambulance services for the entire county.   

The recommendation noted that there is no easy way to set up a service that takes over management of consistently more than 2,500 calls for service from rural and urban residents by July 1, 2020. 

The contract with the long-time private Washington County Ambulance Services ends at midnight June 30 when the service itself also will end.

The advisory committee started informal meetings early this year at the supervisors’ recommendation. It formally became the Washington County Ambulance Advisory Committee to explore options for ensuring  ongoing ambulance services with a July 1 deadline.

After creating an EMS department, the next six points include:

• Creating a working budget to cover ambulance inventory, billing plans/options, equipment, maintenance, department location and revenue sources and projections to cover costs of an ambulance director and EMS personnel wages and benefits.

• Creating a three-to-five-year working capital plan to consider lease versus owning an ambulance and creating cash flow.

• Collaborating with the Washington County Hospital to create possible shared efficiencies; meeting with the Wellman Ambulance about availability and options for use of its ambulance; and fostering a partnership with Johnson County Ambulance.

• Hiring a Washington County Ambulance director with the search to start early in 2020 by creating a hiring committee with a salary determined by a salary review committee.

• Seeking public outreach via public forums within the cities and towns in the county as well as from volunteer EMS and firefighting  professionals.

• Creating an advisory board for long-term department management. The recommendations also included a detail job description for the director position, who would work under the supervision of the Board of Supervisors, like all other county department heads.

The recommendations were presented go the board by committee member and Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh who stressed the importance of public outreach in providing continued emergency ambulance services.

Supervisors Richard Young said, “there is a lot of work to do on this,” noting that the board had to review the recommendations, possibly at a work session, before considering it formally at the next meeting.