A Keizer Fire District official says the community has seen minimal impacts from its decision to sometimes cut the service of an ambulance after several employees left the agency or took leave.
The ambulance has been “browned out” since late May, which Division Chief Brian Butler said means the medic unit is not staffed at certain times.
With three employees on leave and five vacant paramedic positions, Butler said the fire district decided to stand down its least-used ambulance on some days in an effort to save money on overtime and avoid overworking employees.
Two people are required to staff an ambulance.
“We don’t want to brown out an ambulance, but sometimes with the situation you’re in, you just have to make that decision,” Butler said.
The agency still has two medic units in Keizer and one stationed in Salem.
In recent months, two employees went off duty because of injuries, one took family leave, and five paramedics left for jobs at Life Flight, the Salem Fire Department and elsewhere.
Butler said the district staffs a total of 52 employees, and eight or nine volunteers.
The agency expects to fill the paramedic vacancies by the end of summer, Butler said. Three new employees are expected out of a paramedic academy that begins this month.
Butler said the frequency in which the district cuts staffing for the ambulance varies, depending on the number of employees who are out sick, on vacation or at training.
The ambulance is housed at Marion County Fire District’s Clear Lake station, and was moved there last summer due to a lack of storage space in the Keizer station along Chemawa Road. This station has a Marion County ambulance unit as well, which Butler said was a consideration in deciding to reduce the Keizer ambulance’s service.
When staffed, Keizer’s Clear Lake ambulance typically responds to over three calls per day. Other ambulances typically respond to six calls in a day and four calls in a half-day.
Butler said the district budgets $42,500 per month for overtime, and over the last four months overtime has run approximately $70,000 per month.
“By not having that unit staffed, we’re bringing that overtime number down, closer to where it should be,” Butler said. “And that’s where we want to stay.”
The fire district is funded through property taxes and ambulance revenue, and it expects to draw $3.95 million from ambulance services in the upcoming fiscal year – an increase from $2.8 million in the current year.
Chief Ryan Russell attributed the increase to a new partnership with the Salem Fire Department, in which one medic unit is stationed in Salem. Butler said that loss of ambulance revenue stemming from reduced use of the Clear Lake ambulance is not straining the district financially because of the money saved on overtime costs.
So far, Butler said Keizer has seen an uptick in out-of-town ambulances responding to emergencies, but response times have not increased significantly.
He said the dispatchers send the nearest ambulance to calls regardless of fire district boundaries, and that’s one reason response times have remained steady. He added that Keizer fire engines staffed with paramedics respond to medical emergencies alongside ambulances, and can begin medical care if they arrive before an ambulance.
“People are getting care initiated when they would normally get care initiated, if that ambulance was in service,” Butler said.
NEWS TIP? Contact reporter Krista Kroiss at [email protected].
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