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Glacier County EMS staff reduction forces different operations

Posted at 8:00 PM, Nov 11, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-11 22:00:46-05

In August, Amie Allison, the director of the Glacier County EMS Department in Cut Bank, resigned from her position after learning about budget cuts and the inability to pay off nearly $3 million in debt.

Allison served as the director for eight years.

Commissioners then completed an assessment of the program and realized from that point on changes needed to be made.

Those changes included going from 14 full-time paramedics on staff down to just two full-time and one part-time paramedic.

Charles Farmer, who is the Glacier County EMS Director, said, “Right now we are running our 911 calls just fine. We’re short-staffed, a lot of ambulance companies in Montana are short-staffed, but we’re running our 911 calls 24/7.”

With the decrease in staffing of full-time paramedics, Glacier County EMS went from operating at an Advanced Life Support Level now to just operating at a Basic Life Support Level.

Advanced Life Support ambulances transport patients who need a higher level of care during transportation.

Basic Life Support ambulances provide transport to patients who do not require cardiac monitoring.

Farmer said they are still taking calls and doing transfers, just not as many as they once did.

Farmer also said, “Basic life support is just fine, we’re still doing emergency calls. If we have a motor vehicle accident out there, we have staff to go out there and take care of those scenes. There’s not going to be a problem, the citizens can rest assured we’re there for them.”

When paramedics are available, Advanced Life Support is still done for patients who need a higher level of care in emergency situations.

Farmer said the county does still have a budget for the program, but they are handling calls case by case, not wanting to cause fatigue to his staff.



(AUGUST 8, 2018) In a closed session, the Glacier County Commission decided to eliminate a home health program, a decision chairman Michael DesRosier said will hopefully cut the debt and increase revenue in the county.

After learning about the meeting, Amie Allison resigned from her position as the director of the Glacier County EMS Department in Cut Bank, one she served as for eight years.

“I am resigning because of the inability to do my job. There has been additional stress placed on me as a director with closed meetings occurring, voting on departmental concerns without discussion or including me as the department head,” reads part of Allison’s resignation letter.

As of Tuesday night, the commission has accepted Allison’s resignation, but she said her work is not done.

“I’ve learned a lot of things in this position, and one of those is to make sure your voice is heard with the legislature,” Allison said.

She said the department is nearly $3 million in debt. $1.7 million was spent on the EMS building, a little over $1 million for the operating budget, and about $400,000 for ambulance purchases. The money that’s left goes to the payroll.

“That amount has grown over time, anything that’s left certainly moves forward. For our department, we only get 1.94 mill levies so that is split between Cut Bank, Browning, and Babb. If you’re looking at the Cut Bank location, only that 0.65 of a mill levy, it’s hardly enough to sustain a service,” Allison said.

The EMS department is responsible for about 800 transports, 1,400 calls a year, and serves about 13,000 people, 10,000 of which are on Medicaid.

“If you take those away, what happens to your community? There’s already disparities that occurs. There’s people that already don’t have cars, you can’t get a ride so if you can’t get a transport during a medical issue, what did we do to our community? It’s going to be detrimental,” Allison said.

Allison said although she’s stepping down, she plans on staying involved in Montana EMS, working with legislature and is hopeful for change.

“I want to thank the community and the commission that I have worked under for the last eight years. I absolutely love the kind of work I do and the projects that I have been a part of completed through EMS. I believe my work will continue to support the community, the EMS staff, and the department,” reads Allison’s letter of resignation.

Glacier County Commissioner Chairman Michael DesRosier said in two weeks they will have a commission meeting where they will discuss a plan for the future of the EMS department.