A decision on whether Washington County will take on operating an ambulance service will be made next week. At Tuesday’s Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting an update on the ambulance advisory committee was given along with two letters in support of the move for the county to oversee an ambulance department; those letters came from Toby Hancock the president of the Washington County EMS Association, and Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh on behalf of the city administrators from Washington, Wellman, and Riverside along with Washington Police and Katrina Altenhofen of Hospice of Washington County and former state director of EMS for children. Schlabaugh summarized the letter that outlined seven steps to be taken in order to maintain the level of emergency services to residents of Washington County, including hiring a director soon.

Supervisor Richard Young, who is also the director of Washington County Ambulance Inc., said in his opinion the state is forcing the hands of the counties. He said in Henry County the hospital there is looking to no longer have an ambulance service and have it go to the county, and in Jefferson County a request for proposal for ambulance service has been issued. Young said in his opinion, he echoes what those letters stated, where the best option is for the county to run an ambulance service, “For the ambulance service to stay in Washington County, the county taking it over is going to be the best thing for the citizens of Washington County. We can get providers in here from the east coast or whatever, but are they going to be dedicated to Washington County? That’s the thing we have to look at. And there is a lot of work to do. Whoever is going to become the new director has got a lot of work to do in the next several months. I think what they put in front of us is a very good thing.”

The current ambulance contract expires June 30, 2020 at midnight. Reimbursement rates for service providers dropped when the state moved to Managed Care Organizations, making it difficult for entities to be paid for their work. In 2018, the Washington County Ambulance Inc. responded to 2,461 calls for service, and had 1,884 patient transports. The supervisors will have the matter on their next agenda for their meeting at the Washington County Courthouse Tuesday at 9 a.m.