Ephrata reviews ambulance options

EPHRATA — Ephrata is examining its options after Grant County Fire District 5 decided to stop ambulance services in roughly six months.

The fire district decided to end its involvement with the ambulance side of the operation and the Advanced Life Support function because of budget concerns. The service is about $20,000 in debt in the most recent budget, according to fire district Commissioner Pat Hochstatter.

The district is looking at options for companies to provide ambulance service to the area.

Ephrata is one of the cities contracting with the fire district for ambulance service to the city. It pays the district per call handled within the city. City Administrator Wes Crago said the city gave up its license to operate an EMS service when it started contracting with the fire district.

“That license was assigned to fire district 5, which means until fire district 5 surrenders the license, the City of Ephrata is going to be more of a witness than a participant in whatever negotiations that are going to take place,” he said.

After discussions with Ephrata Fire Chief Jeremy Burns and Police Chief Mike Warren, Crago said there are about five options for the city. The first is the hope of negotiating with the district to keep the ambulance service.

“The second one, which would be what district 5 is very clearly going to, which is they want a private provider to take on the area, (the private provider) would take on the license and we would have a new EMS provider,” he said.

If the city did get the license back and resumed providing ambulance service, it will result in a lower level of service, he said, adding the city is satisfied with the service from the fire district.

“We would be dropping back in care to basic life support, which is first responder training, possibly EMT, depending on what’s going on in a volunteer fire department type of service,” he said.

Crago said the city also could look into contracting with a different ambulance service, much like it did with fire district 5. There are options of creating an ambulance service with Grant County Fire District 13 or with Soap Lake, another of the cities contracting with fire district 5.

“How this could affect our budget? We really don’t know at this time,” he said. “It could be a net gain for the City of Ephrata if a private provider was to provide advanced life support without subsidy. It could be that we have to have our current rescue rig re-certified, reacquire the license, have more volunteers to get back into full time ambulance care.”