Remounting for a medic unit, an amended a transport service agreement were among the items Hopkins County Hospital District Board of Directors tackled during their regular meeting Monday night. A Hopkins County EMS official also was announced as having been named to a state EMS leadership role.
EMS Truck Remount
In keeping with the fleet remounting program schedule, the hospital district agreed to fund remounting of Medic 4. The medic unit has over 288,000 miles on it, according to Brent Smith, director of EMS services.
The $124,000 fee includes additional modifications to meet new safety guidelines. For instance, the floor work requires a different stretcher mount to be installed. The fee is actually a little bit less than that paid for the last remount, as it took more to update to regulations, according to Smith.
Smith asked the hospital district board go ahead and order the chassis, which would typically be in around August. Repairs will be made by Excellance, an Alabama manufacturer of ambulances and manufacturer in Alabama. Excellance has performed the tasks in the recent past. Typically, once an order is put in, it takes about 6 months for the business to get to the work. This will put the ambulance in the work cue for Excellance.
Funding for the project is expected to be paid in October, during the new fiscal year for the district.
Ambulance transport agreement
The local EMS service contracts with UTMB to transport inmates for medical purposes from state facilities. The hospital district previously had a 4 year agreement, which was extended by one year last year. A motion proposed to the hospital district board Monday asked them to pass an amendment extending the contract for another year.
Smith said the last time he checked statistics, the local EMS service had conducted approximately 240 transports, which is more than has been done before.
“It seems to be working well, and it’s good revenue. They call us daily, whether we can get a crew in to do that trip that day or not,” Smith said.
A lot of the EMS personnel who were filling in to do make the trips are currently filling in on 24-hour shifts already, thus they are unable make the transports. So the EMS service had to turn down some requests in the last pay period to do transports for UTMB, Smith said.
The hospital board agreed to amend the ambulance transportation for UTMB agreement by one year.
Texas EMS Alliance
Also during the meeting Smith reported being named president elect for Texas EMS Alliance during the organization’s annual conference last week.
“Texas EMS Alliance is the largest trade association for EMS in Texas. We are an advocacy group with EMS in the Legislature. That’s our main function, then we are also put out more education to develop more leaders in the EMS, in the state TEMSA as the biggest EMS trade organization in Texas, composed of mostly governmental 911 providers and advocates for EMS to legislators,” Smith said.
He served from 2016-12019 on the TEMSA Board as the Hospital Based EMS Small representative.
Smith said his new position is actually a 6-year commitment. He will train for 2 years under the current president, serve as president for 2 years starting in 2021, and stay on for 2 years as past president to help the new leaders coming behind him.
