Stanislaus County is forming in-house EMS agency and breaking from Mountain Valley
Stanislaus County is creating an in-house emergency medical services agency, ending years of dissatisfaction with a joint powers authority that has watched over EMS in Stanislaus and four smaller counties.
County supervisors unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday to establish the Local Emergency Medical Services Agency (LEMSA) within the Sheriff Department’s emergency services division.
The in-house agency will take over responsibilities for ensuring safe and dependable ambulance and paramedic service. LEMSA also will work on planning and evaluation of local emergency medical services and help coordinate allocation of resources during disasters and major incidents.
In March 2021, Stanislaus County leaders authorized sending a termination notice to the joint powers board of the Mountain Valley Emergency Medical Services Agency. Stanislaus since 1981 has been a partner in Mountain Valley with Calaveras, Mariposa, Alpine and Amador counties for coordination and regulation of emergency services.
Stanislaus County’s population has doubled to more than 555,000 in the 40 years the county has been in the Mountain Valley JPA. County leaders hope the in-house agency will provide more local control and responsiveness as the county tries to improve ambulance service and address other issues in the EMS system.
According to a staff report, the in-house agency will be more accountable to county leadership and makes more sense for an urbanized county that has more than 60,000 emergency medical calls a year. The rural mountain counties in Mountain Valley have 6,000 to 7,000 calls annually.
Agency would launch July 1
Stanislaus plans to severe ties with the Mountain Valley agency June 30, with LEMSA going into effect July 1. San Joaquin and Merced counties are other counties that have their own EMS agencies.
Even while Stanislaus considered other options for EMS oversight last year, complaints surfaced about slow ambulance response times that have strained local fire agencies and health care districts.
In responding to medical calls, fire districts were waiting 30 to 45 minutes for arrival of an ambulance. Outlying healthcare districts were sending ambulance units to calls in Modesto and other cities when American Medical Response did not have an ambulance available. AMR is the largest ambulance provider serving the county.
The county plans to begin the new in-house agency with six personnel, but the ultimate 10-member staff could include a manager, assistant manager, three EMS coordinators, two staff services analysts and two administrative clerks.
Richard Murdock, the county’s assistant director of emergency services, was appointed Tuesday as interim executive director for LEMSA, and Dr. Gregory Kann was appointed as interim medical director.
County leaders don’t know how many staff members working for the Modesto–based Mountain Valley EMS would accept job offers from LEMSA. The other four counties are staying with Mountain Valley, which presumably will move to a new office in one of those counties.
Staffing concern raised
Stanislaus County Board Chairman Terry Withrow said he hopes the typical staffing issues facing employers these days won’t delay launch of the new agency July 1.
“We don’t want to end up shooting ourselves in the foot and wanting to end up back with Mountain Valley EMS,” Withrow said.
Supervisor Vito Chiesa wanted the county to keep offering the smaller counties the option of contracting for EMS services with Stanislaus.
After the new agency is on its feet, county leaders want to work on a better EMS response system, including ambulance providers and fire districts; coordination with mental health services and public health; evaluation of opportunities with regional 911 service; and a request for proposals process for ambulance services.
Karin Hennings, director of Del Puerto Health Care District, asked to continue talks with Mountain Valley and county officials about ongoing ambulance service issues during the transition in the next several months.
The County Counsel is dealing with some legal amendments for making the transition from Mountain Valley to an in-house agency. Mountain Valley collected $1.65 million in fines assessed to ambulance providers in Stanislaus that failed to meet response-time standards and other contractual obligations.
The funds were intended for local EMS improvements such as equipment, training and supplies. The County Counsel is working on changing the fund policy to use some of the money for startup costs of the in-house agency, in addition to funding needs for the EMS system.
LEMSA is expected to have $390,650 in startup costs and $1.5 million in expenditures the first year of operation. The ongoing funding for the new agency will come from fees assessed to ambulance providers, hospitals, training programs and court fines.
The new agency will take over duties from Mountain Valley such as filing annual reports to the state for maintaining the special trauma center, stroke and heart attack center designations at local hospitals.
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 12:46 PM.
