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It’s taken a little time, but area fire districts are answering the call that could result in less-expensive, more-efficient ambulance service.
At its Monday meeting, the Spokane Valley Fire Department Board of Commissioners agreed to take part in an interlocal agreement with several area fire units in order to forge a single contract for emergency ambulance service from a sole provider. Along with Spokane Valley, the cities of Cheney, Medical Lake and Airway Heights have all pledged to take part in the plan.
“I’m excited,” Spokane Valley Fire Chief Mike Thompson said. “This is over two years in the making.”
The current service provider to the city is American Medical Response, the largest ambulance company in the area. However, other companies – including the national Rural Metro service – have expressed interest for a compelling reason: exclusive rights to be the sole provider for thousands of estimated ambulance calls in most of Spokane County.
The idea of working together, Thompson said, is that a joint contract will make the chosen ambulance company more accountable for quicker response times and lower rates for those needing the service. Fire districts also get response-time guarantees, better billing tracking and possibly lower rates for users. Thompson said there were 22,000 calls for ambulances in Spokane County last year.
In 2006, Bruce Holloway – chief of Fire District 3, which serves the rural area around Cheney – said that his department hoped to get involved in order to prevent more restrictive agreements between the awarded bidder that could possibly tie up ambulances in other areas.
“We actually had a pretty good concern that there might be some sort of exclusivity contract (with Spokane Valley),” Holloway said at the time. “By coming together like this, we alleviate this.”
By drawing up a joint contract, the single service provider would be responsible for serving everyone, in all areas, equally.
Participating fire districts besides 1 (Spokane Valley) and 3 are 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 and 13. Fire departments in Cheney, Medical Lake and Airway Heights are also represented.
AMR has its own arrangement with the city of Spokane, so that city isn’t participating at this time but would be welcomed later. Other towns, especially in the southern part of the county, have their own ambulance services.
Kolby Hanson, Spokane Valley fire commissioner, said he was concerned that if a company other than AMR – which employs over 18,000 nationwide -- got the contract, it would be up and running and ready to meet the large demands the pact would entail.
“It’s a big undertaking,” he said. “They’d be starting from scratch.”
Thompson said the ability to meet each district’s needs would be addressed in the contract. He added that the Spokane Valley Fire Department would be the lead agency and that a separate ambulance service board would be created to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to.
“It’s been a long process,” he said.
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By
Mike Huffman
