“Obviously that is way short of the amount of money that we would like to have if we were to run two stations 24/7,” Filler said.
The Tucker County Ambulance Authority is facing a huge budget shortfall, according to Board President Dennis Filler. Tucker County is not alone in what is shaping up to be a Statewide crisis of EMS providers shuttering their doors.“We’re not alone in the financial difficulties that EMS is having,” Filler said.
According to Filler, stations across the state continue to shut down due to lack of funding with some of those entities contacting Tucker County about purchasing their equipment. “Will the State be making future EMS investments?” Filler said. “Obviously, we have financial difficulties. There are other organizations in the state that are shutting down and continue to shut down.”
According to Filler, EMS is currently running a $1.126 million budget on working capital of $830,000 and has been rapidly exhausting a $221,000 escrow account to make up for the shortfall. According to Filler, there is a chance of bankruptcy by year’s end without drastic changes to the current operational mode. “Obviously that is way short of the amount of money that we would like to have if we were to run two stations 24/7,” Filler said.
Filler said the new configuration would reduce the number of hours both stations are fully staffed and reduce the 24 hour staffing to one station with the other station staffed during peak hours. Filler also said the reduced schedule would not affect the organization’s capacity to respond to two calls at once.
Filler said various EMS organizations and providers are in talks with the State. “I did get the announcement that there are meeting with the State and the EMS Coalition, EMS providers and that kind of stuff,” Filler said. “So hopefully within the next two weeks we will get some more information about what’s happening at the State level.”