Council updated on JEMS

Just a few weeks into his new job, Eric Moore is already implementing changes.

The new Jay Emergency Medical Service leader told Jay County Council at its meeting Wednesday about his new management staff and a planned change in scheduling. He also requested funds to purchase new heart monitors and suggested that council look into expanding the ambulance service’s facility.

The new management team includes Leslie Peterson, who is Moore’s supervisor through Jay County Hospital, Gary Barnett, his assistant director and a shift manager, and Emily Anderson and John McFarland, both shift managers.

Moore was hired as the service’s new leader last month after the county entered an agreement to have Jay County Hospital manage Jay Emergency Medical Service for the next two years. The change was in response to the service’s financial woes that required help in the form of $400,000 in 2014 and $300,000 in 2010 from the rainy day fund, which was also being used to pay a paramedic’s salary.

“It’s a broken system,” said Moore, “but it’s not entirely too broken that it’s not salvageable.”

“The morale has definitely improved, in my opinion,” he added, with his management team nodding their heads in agreement behind him. “People are starting to definitely move forward, and the overall attitudes have been positive.”

One of the key issues in terms of spending had been employee overtime, which Moore hopes to reduce with the implementation of a new schedule beginning April 1. That schedule will include three teams working Monday/Thursday, Tuesday/Friday and Wednesday/Saturday, with Sunday hours being staffed by part-time employees.

He said the new system will also allow the elimination of one full-time position, saving more than $30,000 per year.

Moore then asked if that money could be shifted into an account for capital improvements, specifically saying it could be used to help replace the service’s four 20-year-old heart monitors. The service agreement on those monitors has already expired.

“As of right now, if they go out on a call and something breaks, we’re sitting ducks,” he said. “This is definitely something we want to move very quickly on. This is our lifeline. This is how we’re going to be able to treat you and your family.”

Moore requested that council members Jeanne Houchins, Ted Champ, Gary Theurer, Bob Vance, Mike Rockwell, Cindy Newton and Faron Parr consider contributing $80,000 for new heart monitors — he hopes to buy two new and two refurbished — saying that he and his staff have already scheduled meetings with firms in order to get quotes. The goal is to partner with Jay County Hospital, which was already scheduled to replace its monitors in 2018, in an effort to keep costs down. The hospital and medical service having compatible equipment would also cut down on costs for both facilities, Moore said.

He expects each new monitor to be in the $35,000 to $37,000 range, but said he does not have a ballpark price for purchasing refurbished monitors.

“My first thought is that if they’re 20 years old, any technology 20 years old is like three generations outdated,” said Rockwell.

Council agreed to consider the request, asking that Moore try to have quotes to them at their next meeting.

Moore also expressed concern about the medical service facility, noting that it was built for one ambulance in 1993. Jay County now has two crews working out of the same space.

He noted that there is not sufficient storage space for documents and other supplies and asked the council members tour the facility.

“They’re just on top of each other,” said Houchins, who has already been on a tour. “This just needs re-thought, how we’re utilizing that space. … I think we need to give this some attention.”

Council members agreed to begin their Feb. 8 meeting with a tour of the Jay Emergency Medical Service facility, located on Creagor Avenue adjacent to Jay County Hospital, at 6 p.m. The regular meeting will follow at 7 p.m. in the commissioners’ room at Jay County Courthouse.

Another possible change could come in the area of billing, Moore said. He told council that hospital employees Joday Auker and Pam Lennartz are in the midst of performing an internal audit and have already noted that the service is using an antiquated billing system and that the current staff is not trained in Medicare and Medicaid billing.

Moore has already scheduled a presentation with The AccuMed Group out of Michigan to learn about the possibility of outsourcing billing. Council members asked that he also get quotes for upgrading the internal billing system, saying they’d prefer not to eliminate employees if possible.

Council also approved a series of additional appropriations, including:

•$13,332.80 to the general fund for surveyor labor.

•$7,384.08 to general for public defender wages to bring the department in compliance with state statute.

•$8,255.25 to emergency management to carry over funds from 2016.

•$131,000 to a new Jay-Portland building and planning fund. That money was previously part of the general fund.

Council also learned from auditor Anna Culy that the county’s general fund balance was just under $1.2 million as of Jan. 3.

“That is the best starting balance we’ve had in a few years,” she said.

The general fund balance was $642,071.46 at the close of 2015.

In other business, council:

•Elected Houchins as its new president and Champ as vice president. Both were elected without opposition. Leonhard and Theurer respectively held those positions in 2016.

•Retained Bill Hinkle as the county’s attorney.

•Reassigned council members to committees with few changes. The most significant of those was assigning Parr to the committees that had previously been the responsibility of Mike Leonhard, the former council president who was elected commissioner in November.

•Transferred $39,179.20 to contractual services from EMS director to pay Moore’s salary.

•Extended its freeze on tax abatements for another year. Council had also decided against giving any abatements in 2016.

•Adopted a policy to allow new treasurer Paula Miller to invest public funds for more than two years and not more than five years. A similar policy had been in place, but it needed to be approved again with a new treasurer taking office.

•Appointed Liz Lawson to the Jay County Public Library board.

•Thanked Leonhard and all other local officials who recently completed their terms in office for their service.