At the final Morrow County Board of Commissioners meeting of the year, area residents gathered to offer their thoughts on upcoming changes to the county’s ambulance service.
More 100 people attended the meeting Wednesday, Dec. 20, at 9 a.m. in Irrigon. Around 40 people squeezed into a room in the government building — so many that a few were asked to watch the meeting in an overflow room — and around 70 participants attended via Zoom.
Public comments took up the first 45 minutes or so of the meeting, with 23 individuals speaking for up to three minutes. Each person focused the majority of their comment on the county’s ambulance service area plan, which is currently being reviewed and adjusted and is opposed by Morrow County Health District, the county’s ambulance service provider.
The district is so opposed to the ASA plan that its board on Dec. 13 gave a 90-day notice to the county commissioners announcing it would discontinue its ambulance service in the county.
Ambulance service continuation concerns
Still, at the meeting, people weren’t mad at the health district for its plan. In general, most people supported the health district, rather than Morrow County officials or the Boardman Fire Rescue District. Commenters seemed to put the blame on the commissioners and county administrator instead.
According to County Administrator Matt Jensen, though, the ambulance service area plan doesn’t necessarily even affect the county contracting the health district for the whole county.
The drafted ASA plan, he said, isn’t going to reduce the services to the county. So it’s not that Irrigon or Heppner residents won’t have ambulance services. They will. The changes are more to change the framework.R
A single ambulance service area covers the whole county. But the drafted plan suggests three service areas — a northern one, a northeastern one and a southern one — so Irrigon, Boardman and Heppner would exist in separate ambulance service areas.
One ambulance service provider could make a bid to the county to cover one, two or all three of these areas. It’s possible the Morrow County Health District would be contracted to serve the whole county. But it’s also possible the county could find it’s better to have different providers in different regions.
Comments for the commissioners
Heppner and Irrigon residents who expressed support for the health district said they worried about what changes to the emergency services setup would mean as well as people who work for the health district as EMS providers and the health district’s CEO.
“This is breaking my heart,” said Karma Ezell during the meeting, her voice thickening with tears. Ezell lives in Irrigon with her husband, Scott. Both have worked as EMS providers for more than a decade.
During a recess, Ezell said, “These are my neighbors and friends, so it’s emotional for me. You bring in outside people to take care of your community, they are not going to have the commitment that we do.”
Jim Clark, Ezell’s neighbor, came over while she was talking and said he is worried that changing the service provider would be the difference between life and death for him. He has heart problems, he said, and if something goes wrong and an emergency medical technician isn’t present within a few minutes, he could die.
So, if response times increase due to coverage changes, he said he’s concerned about what would happen.
“It is my life,” he said, “and they are threatening my life.”
During the comment period, multiple people mentioned feeling like the process hadn’t been transparent and the county had done a poor job communicating what was going on. Some Irrigon or Heppner residents said they felt the commissioners didn’t represent them because they were not from Boardman.
One person tuning in via Zoom, Raymond Akers, said he’d recently voted in support of the health district and felt that should be enough for the board.
“I just want to keep my ambulance service intact,” Akers said. “We the people have spoken loud enough, so I would hope you would put that into some consideration when you do whatever you think you’re doing.”
Emily Roberts, CEO of the Morrow County Health District, told commissioners the health district does want to continue servicing the area, but the proposed ASA plan, which the county has shared with Oregon Health Authority, is not acceptable to the district.
“We hope the county is willing to take on this work with us,” Roberts said.
The role of Boardman Fire
Boardman Fire Rescue District Chief Mike Hughes offered a different take.
“Like many others, I read the health district’s notice to vacate ambulance services countywide,” he said. “The county bears sole responsibility to ensure ambulance service is available throughout Morrow County. I just want to let you know that Boardman Fire is here to assist our community as well as the county in any way so that ambulance service is maintained county-wide.”
Jensen said during and after the meeting that while the health district and residents seemed to believe there had been a decision to award a service area to Boardman Fire, that belief was not accurate.
In fact, Jenson said, because of its designation as a critical access hospital and funding it receives, “the health district is the most advantageously positioned organization to continue providing ambulance services.”
Other area providers won’t receive reimbursements like the health district does and so would have to find other ways to cover the costs, or it would end up costing the county more.
Still, Jensen said, he does expect Boardman Fire Rescue District to present a proposal for at least one of the new service areas, just as he expects the health district to submit an official proposal for all three of the areas.
The district’s ultimatum
The fire district’s plan drew scrutiny.
One Irrigon resident said she is worried about what will happen if Boardman Fire is out on a fire but ambulance services are needed. Roberts, from the health district, echoed that sentiment.
“It’s not uncommon that all four of our Irrigon and Boardman ambulances can be out at once,” Roberts said.
The heath district as two ambulances in Boardman and two in Irrigon, with the pairs able to cross-cover the northern region of the county. Last winter, Roberts said, the district had all four ambulances out, their support teams were all out and nobody had any mutual aid to send to neighboring counties. Boardman Fire was out with all of their trucks, too.
“If they had been responsible for fire and ambulance, and two of our ambulances were out of that equation, we would’ve had two fewer ambulances,” Roberts said. “I don’t know how (Boardman Fire Rescue District) would’ve gotten all of their fire equipment and all of their ambulances out with the people that they have.”
The health district, at this point, has taken the stance that it is unwilling to provide service to only part of the county, meaning if the district were to only serve the northeast and the southern regions in the county — basically, anywhere but Boardman, where the fire district is hoping to begin offering services.
“It’s seamless, the way that we operate,” Roberts said. “And it’s not going to be seamless if there’s another service provider.”
Roberts and many community members feel there is no reason to change the way operations have been going.
“We’re providing the service now, it’s working very well, we’re saving lives, our response times are excellent,” she said, “and there’s been no reason given to us that we wouldn’t continue to do the service.”
The health district still has concerns over the ASA plan draft that Roberts said she feels the county has not addressed.
Morrow County Commissioner Jeff Wenholz said, “What’s interesting to me is that we’re made out as the bad guys when we aren’t the ones who gave 90 days notice.”
Wenholz said he wasn’t sure the meeting went very well, but said he hopes people realize that, unlike what was thought, no contract has been awarded and no decisions have been made.
“I hope they take away that the county isn’t the bad guy here,” he said. “We have been willing to work with people.”
If the county and the health district do not agree on a contract to continue the district’s services by March 12, 2024, another group, or groups, will provide ambulance response for the county. Both parties, at this point, hope to avoid that outcome.
Morrow County residents need to ask, WHY did MCHD refused to be honest & transparent BEFORE their levy was voted on?
Why is MCHD taking OUR hard earned money while refusing to provide the services that WE are paying MCHD MILLIONS of $$$$ per year for?
This certainly sounds like MCHD cares more about taking OUR money than they do about patient care.