SEOEMS joins new partnership, gets cash advance from counties

The financially troubled Southeast Ohio Emergency Medical Services (SEOEMS) District has entered into a partnership with the medical transport service MedFlight, to provide ground transportation of patients during times when MedFlight’s helicopters are out of service or grounded by weather conditions.

 

 

According to a news release last Thursday, the joint initiative will use SEOEMS vehicles to take helicopter medical crews to an emergency patient’s bedside when helicopters aren’t flying, and then transport the patient and medical personnel to the appropriate trauma or heart center for advanced care.

The two organizations have already been working together for decades, the release noted. It quotes Jackson County Commissioner Ed Armstrong as saying that that the new program “furthers our efforts to save lives in the community by joining our regional EMS services with the high level of care MedFlight already has at their bases when the helicopters can’t fly.”

James Schulz, RN, unit manager of the emergency department at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, called the program “a great tool for us to provide the best option for our sickest patients to be transported when weather prevents the helicopters from flying.”

MedFlight is a not-for-profit air-andground critical-care transportation company based in Ohio that handles nearly 6,500 transports a year.

The partnership may bring some needed new business to SEOEMS at a time when the district is struggling with a reported $1 million deficit in its annual budget of about $8 million.

Last week, the Athens County commissioners agreed to advance the district – which covers Athens, Jackson and Lawrence counties – $154,000 to help it pay pressing bills to the IRS and a state retirement program. On Friday, Jackson County agreed to advance the district $77,000. A proposal for Lawrence County to match Athens’ County’s $154,000 to help keep the emergency services district afloat is scheduled for a vote this coming Thursday.

Even if all three counties kick in the money, however, the district still faces serious ongoing budget problems. The district’s treasurer has attributed these to contractual agreements that cap the annual amount each county pays into the district, and have resulted in the districts’ eating budget shortfalls of some $700,000 over about the last decade; coupled with a serious shortfall in the amount of money the district had expected to collect this year from patient payments.

Last week, the Athens County commission approved creation of an exploratory committee to begin looking into the option of setting up a single-county EMS district.