Thursday, August 16, 2007
Courthouse and LEC
Sheriff’s Dept. Training Room
10:00 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Jim Bialecki for Chief Tim Hauser, Chief Scott Alo, Chief Gregg Cleveland, Chief Randy Roeck, Chief Edward Kondracki, Clarence Stellner for Chief Con Dominick, Vicki Burke, Bruce Ranis, Dr. Eric Voter, Captain Jeff Wolf for Sheriff Steve Helgeson, Steve O’Malley
MEMBERS EXCUSED: None
MEMBERS ABSENT: None
OTHERS PRESENT: Jay Loeffler, Keith Butler, Al Blencoe, Assistant Chief Randy
Loken, Mayor Mark Johnsrud, Assistant Chief Tom Jacobs,
Jim Klock, Matt Zavadsky, Quentin Lamers, Don Martin,
Chief Doug Schober.
CALL TO ORDER:
Committee Vice Chair Chief Scott Alo called the meeting to order at 10:03 a.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
MOTION by Burke/O’Malley/ to approve meeting minutes of April 30, 2007. Motion carried unanimously.
ELECT CHAIR
MOTION by Bialecki/Ranis to nominate Chief Edward Kondracki, MOTION by Stellner/Cleveland to have one unanimous vote in favor of Chief Kondracki. Motion carried unanimously.
Chief Kondracki thanked the board and conveyed his appreciation of the unanimous nomination.
ADMINISTRATOR’S EMD REPORT – Jay Loeffler – EMD Study hand out.
Jay pointed out the three options including advantages, disadvantages, costs and training.
· Maintain dispatch-only policy on EMS calls and not provide certified EMD service.
· La Crosse County would invest in EMD for the Public Safety Communications Center.
· Transfer/conference EMS calls to Gundersen Lutheran for EMD Protocol, specifically pre-arrival emergency medical instructions.
Jay highlighted his report and recommended that La Crosse County works with Gundersen Lutheran Communications, Tri-State Ambulance and all La Crosse County emergency medical service providers to develop the guidelines to best utilize the EMD service provided by Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center Communications.
The long term ultimate goal would be that the first person who answers the 9-1-1 call be the one to give the pre-arrival instructions and stay with the caller through the entire call and not transfer the call unless it was absolutely necessary.
Jay also advised there be some memorandum of understanding developed between Gundersen Lutheran and La Crosse County to establish consistent procedures and policies that guide both parties in the use of EMD protocol to best serve the citizens and visitors of La Crosse County.
Jay recommended there be an EMD Policy Team with representation from the Medical Director, Gundersen Lutheran Communications, Emergency Services, Tri-State Ambulance, and the Fire Department with EMS as well as the volunteer First Responder Groups.
Steve O’Malley noted that he respects Jay’s recommendation and that in the long term we would like to see EMD somehow within our structure. The Law Enforcement building is in the process of going through an analysis to figure out how to achieve a building addition and the consideration of either co-locating or expanding the area of dispatch.
CITY OF LA CROSSE FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORT REGARDING EMD PROPOSAL – Assistant Chief Randy Loken – Hand out report provided.
Asst. Chief Loken applauded the Dispatch Center and his confidence in the excellent skills of the personnel. He noted the data of his report supports that the personnel required to do the job are already there and again coupled with the qualifications and infrastructure, the only thing left to be done is the software and training. Funding is obviously a concern so grants, user fees and several other options need to be explored. Chief Loken also conveyed the Fire Departments recommendation to the Public Safety Communications Governing Board that EMD should indeed be implemented and that the implementation of the service be a priority. He also recommended that the board draft a course of action which would include the setting of protocols and the procurement of funds to make this service a reality.
Chief Kondracki offered his observation of the board arriving at a middle ground and that the major concern noted in both reports is that there is no loss of response time occurring when calls are being transferred from one location to another. It’s always been about response time and providing the best service to the community which is everyone’s concern.
Chief Cleveland thanked Tri-State for their willingness to sit down and discuss the issues and although it may not be exactly what the board wants or exactly what Tri-State would want but both have focused on the public and what our missions are.
Chief Kondracki noted that Jay’s report mentions a memorandum of understanding and a policy team and also Randy’s report mentioning a committee needed to make this happened but there seems to be a little disagreement regarding the amount of training needed and the amount of time to provide that training. These matters will be discussed further in item number five.
MODIFICATIONS TO TRI-STATE EMD PROPOSAL – Round Table.
Chief Cleveland noted there is a lot or work to be done to move forward. There’s internal benchmarking for call handling, recommendations that need to be made for call handling and transfer and much more detailed work on pre-arrival instructions. Chief Cleveland also noted there should be a provision that the board come back in twelve months and address any concerns.
Mayor Johnsrud noted that this proposal came out of mediation, which is a positive for mediation. In their discussions of EMS and EMD within the County of La Crosse there was an agreement of providing pre-arrival instructions and the way those pre-arrival instructions would be carried out for the next twelve months. This is a positive that everyone can hang their hats on.
Mayor Bialecki conveyed that in following the progress he respects the mediation process and supports moving forward and noted that Jay had made a recommendation of a policy board and would ask that the committee publicly notice their meetings. Mayor Johnsrud advised that through mediation it was determined that the policy board would be the Public Safety Communications Governing Board for the initial twelve month period. Steve O’Malley conveyed, as a member of the board, what Jay is trying to get across is that while this board is making the decisions, there be some means of interaction for more than just these members. The envision was to have everyone from medical professionals to the people who are actually in the field engage in the process as we help guide this. Chief Kondracki conveyed also his agreement to some sort of committee which would report to this board.
Matt Zavadsky expressed his thanks to the City for the discussions during the mediation process and congratulated all the sources involved in the process to bring EMD to the point it is today. Matt agreed that the true supervision of the policy making and procedural process need to rest with the Governing Board, although conveyed the need for an implementation team of “street level users”. Individuals who are not necessarily on the Governing Board who will be using this everyday could provide good insight as to how they would like to see this program work.
Several members of the board conveyed their agreement to the implementation of a committee and also expressed their agreement that the board make all final decisions.
From his report, Jay Loeffler recommended there be representation from; the Medical Director, Gundersen Lutheran Communications, Public Safety Communications, Tri-State Ambulance, representation from the Fire Department with EMS and also from the volunteer Fire Responder Units.
Mayor Johnsrud instructed that the Governing Board is to implement all decisions but if this board decides they need a sub-group who reports back to this group on implementation it is possible, but if there are any problems in providing pre-arrival instructions, any decision making is up to this board. Mayor Johnsrud advised that these in not just pre-arrival instructions, this is Tri-State prioritizing dispatch of their ambulances based on those pre-arrival instructions. It doesn’t prioritize any EMS staff within the county of La Crosse. In other word the way this will work is, when a call comes into 9-1-1 they will dispatch EMS staff and ambulance immediately and then the call with be transferred to Gundersen Lutheran Dispatch to give pre-arrival instructions. That doesn’t mean that Gundersen Lutheran couldn’t prioritize their level of service within their matrix of ambulances as providing service to an eight county area that you couldn’t have disparities in the level of service that is being provided to these areas within La Crosse county. Mayor Johnsrud and the committee feel the Public Safety Communications Board should oversee the overall process. For instance if an ambulance doesn’t show up for a call or is late on a call we felt was a priority, how is that going to be addressed. This board was set up as a cooperative between the county and the city back in 1975 to address 9-1-1 Dispatch.
Steve O’Malley suggest that a place to start would be to get insight and input from the individuals who are dealing with the transfer and could better identify the issues they see and make that presentation to a reduced group. Right now everyone has their own vision of what might happen.
Chief Kondracki noted that he does recommend there be a committee reporting back to this board at every meeting so the board can provide close supervision and make the critical implementation decisions.
MOTION by Steve O’Malley/Cleveland made that the dispatch staff, medical director and Tri-State draft a set of procedures to present back to the board within one month and at that time the decision be made as to how many people to involve.
FRIENDLY AMENDMENT OF MOTION by Chief Cleveland to develop an Advisory Committee consisting of eight members with representation from Tri-State Ambulance, Emergency Services, Medical Director, Gundersen Lutheran Dispatch, La Crosse Fire Department, Onalaska Fire Department, First Responder Volunteer and Representative of the County Fire Chiefs. Motion carried unanimously.
ITEMS FOR FUTURE AGENDAS
1. Input on Budget for Dispatch
2. Progress report from EMD Advisory Committee.
NEXT MEETING DATE
The next meeting of the Public Safety Communications Governing Board is scheduled for Monday, September 24, 2007 at 10:00 a.m., Room 3220 – Administrative Center
ADJOURNMENT MOTION to adjourn by Kondracki/Stellner at 10:55 a.m. Motion carried unanimously.
Disclaimer: The above minutes may be approved, amended or corrected at the next board meeting. Patti McDonah, Recorder