NRAD wants to expand south

The Southern Platte County Ambulance District (SPCAD) appears to be moving forward with its exploration of possible alternatives to improving its current ambulance service.

This became evident last week as the Board of Directors of the Northland Regional Ambulance District (NRAD) approved a proposal for ambulance service to submit to SPCAD in response to a recent SPCAD request for proposals (RFP). NRAD, which is based in Platte City, services the Camden Point, Dearborn, Smithville and Central Platte Fire Districts, and provides emergency medical services to much of northern Platte County.

“Our neighbors to the south have asked for our help and we are excited about the opportunity,” NRAD executive director Scott Roy said. “We’ve worked with them (SPCAD) in the past and provided some services to their current provider. We think we can help them. We share the same passion for great ambulance care. We know how important it is.”

While the Kansas City Fire Department is the current contract provider of ambulance services for SPCAD, poor response times have led to debate on what options are available to provide improved service. Currently, KCFD is under a five-year contract — that began on May 1, 2011 — to provide ambulance service to SPCAD. The cost is $453,165 per year. But the contract includes a cancellation clause which can terminate the contract with notice of 30 days, 90 days or 120 days.

SPCAD April meeting minutes obtained by The Citizen detail that KCFD will no longer provide the board with a monthly record of response times and has no plans on moving forward with the current contract as a performance based service despite violating language in the contract which makes it a requirement. SPCAD documents also show discussion was held concerning whether KCFD had the legal right to discontinue services leaving the district without a provider, which had previously been implied by Chief Smokey Dyer. SPCAD Board President Bob Kincaid mentioned he would explore other options and RFPs would be sent to other ambulance service providers.

When contacted by The Citizen, Kincaid declined to comment on the details of the situation or offer what other area ambulance service providers had been solicited, citing possible legal concerns. SPCAD’s next regularly-scheduled monthly meeting is June 20.

In addition to NRAD, other ambulance service providers which may have been solicited include the West Platte Fire District and Heartland Health Clinic, which operates an ambulance service in St. Joseph and is constructing a new clinic in Parkville. West Platte officials said it has not submitted a proposal. Calls to Heartland by The Citizen were not returned as of The Citizen’s Tuesday evening deadline.

Roy, who took over for retired former executive director Tom Taylor June 1, was not able to disclose the specific price included in the approved NRAD proposal, but did indicate it was higher than the one currently in place between SPCAD and KCFD. Roy said the increase was needed to meet the same standards and goals NRAD provides its current coverage area.

“The RFP proposes that we provide them with the same level of service and dedication that we provide our current district,” Roy said. “In the price, we offered to match the same response time standards and reliability that we currently provide, which would be at a higher price than they currently have.”

Roy emphasized that any contract with SPCAD would not affect service NRAD currently gives to its coverage area.

“We are a tax appointed entity, so we have to be responsible to our home base and the citizens we’re already committed to,“ Roy said. “We take that very seriously, so we couldn’t jeopardize that level of service. The proposal takes all those factors into mind, the amount reflects that. There are a lot of things we have to weigh as an organization. We have to make sure we’re not giving a service somewhere else that’s going to neglect what we’re already committed to.”
When asked why MAST, the district’s service provider prior to 2010, was able to provide a high quality service at a lower price, Roy believed it could stem from several different reasons.

“I think there was a small benefit with the economies of scale they had with resources in close proximity back then. They could maybe move ambulances in easier,” Roy said. “Changes in economic times and changes in the reimbursements from private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid can go a long ways in describing the situation.”

While the SPCAD is a smaller, more densely populated area, it shares a border with the current NRAD service area and the call volume is similar which leads them to believe they can help meet their goals in several areas.

“We would dedicate an ambulance to their popular center and make it a priority when that ambulance goes out to use our collaborative resources to fill in its place. That is what we took into account when we put together our cost estimate,” Roy said. “They run about 1,000 calls a year, we run about 1,000 calls a year, so we looked at what we already do to meet that nine minute response times. Not every call will be met in nine minutes, but we’d like for the average to be nine minutes.”

Roy also says one of NRAD’s biggest advantages comes from their dispatch being shared with the primary service answering point at the Platte County Sheriff’s department. This means the same person who dispatches the ambulance is the one who answers the 911 call and there is little time between the call be placed and an ambulance being dispatched.

“The amount of time between when the call is answered and the ambulance dispatched is a very short period of time because there is no delay, which is the case with the KCFD,” Roy said. “We’ll see a little bit of savings in time in that regard. As we know thirty seconds to a minute is a big savings. It’s more of a simple system.”
Although competing for a possible contract award, Roy says all the ambulance districts work together from time to time and the goal is the same for all of them.

“If as elected representatives, they decide to go a different way, we’ll still be their biggest supporters and still provide any assistance we can. We’ve worked with them in the past and provided some services to their current provider,” Roy said. “We have nothing but good things to say about all these providers, even the current one, SPCAD is just looking for alternatives right now. Either way, we share the same passion for great hospital care. We know how important it is.”

Heartland Medical out of St. Joe and the West Platte Fire and Ambulance District are rumored to also have submitted proposals in response to the RFP, which are likely to be considered at the next SPCAD board meeting.