By a unanimous vote in a closed meeting, the Cole County Commission on Tuesday made a change in leadership at the county's ambulance service.
Mike Shirts was reassigned from ambulance service director to paramedic.
Rodney Dyche, described by commissioners as a nationally recognized consultant on emergency medical operations, has been appointed interim director.
"We've had serious morale issues that came to our attention," said Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman. "I met with staff members privately, and our discussions scared me. It truly is a matter of life or death for this department. That opened our eyes that we had some issues out there."
Last September EMS staff had a special meeting, and they later came before the commission in a closed session, Bushman said.
"They presented us a statement of no confidence in Shirts signed by a large number of them, probably over 50 percent of the EMTs and EMS personnel," he said.
Bushman did not give specifics about the complaints raised.
Shirts was the EMS supervisor for Capital Region Medical Center when the hospital operated the service prior to the county taking it over in November 2008. After searching for a new director, the commission eventually decided to keep Shirts as EMS director for the county.
Shirts declined to comment after the vote.
The commission has also engaged Paramedics Plus LLC as a consultant to work on system enhancements to the operations of the ambulance service, including a reorganization of personnel.
"Our goal is to make Cole County EMS one of the best ambulance systems in the state," Bushman said. "Paramedics won't be a babysitter. They are going to help us with things we haven't even thought about and are going to make us a stronger service."
Paramedics Plus is based in Tyler, Texas, and offers staffing and leadership management for EMS services across the country, according to the company's website. Dyche is employed by the company.
"Rodney is one of the experts we brought in earlier to look at our service," Bushman said. "They observed and interviewed our EMTs and paramedics. Rodney has been an EMT and paramedic himself. The company will help us do a job search for a new director."
Bushman said Dyche will not be the permanent director.
"Rodney will be here a few weeks and then another man, John Smith, also from Paramedics Plus, will take over, and he'll report to Rodney," Bushman said. "The commission still has the ultimate authority on the running of the ambulance service. We are not bringing them in to run the county EMS."
Bushman said the commission would like a new director to be in place by the first of the year.
"We'll start the search in earnest in the fall," he said. "EMS is a specialized service, and the commission doesn't have expertise to just step in and take over. They (Paramedics Plus) are going to help us get morale up a bit and strengthen our strong points. We're doing a good job, but I want to be the best. After a meeting with EMS personnel Tuesday following the vote, we told them we are with them and are listening to them."
Bushman said EMS is a complicated department, so it took a while for the commission to make the move.
"I want it known that the citizens of Cole County were never in jeopardy of not having good service," he said. "We thank them for bearing with us. We didn't lose anybody from the staff while this was taking place, and we've got really good people out there. We want to keep them, and this is why we did this. The longevity of some our EMTs and paramedics is not the norm for an EMS service. Some have been there 27 years, starting with Capital Region and staying when the county took over."
Staffing and how ambulances are dispatched are just some of the areas to be examined during the search for a director.
"We are always going to have 'status zeros,' and we'll look to keep those to as minimum as possible," Bushman said. "'Status zero' occurs when all ambulances are in service and resources from outside the county must be accessed. We have to do transports sometimes far across the state, so we are going to be without ambulances at times."
Cole County EMS has 75 employees, 45 full-time and 30 part-time. They have a fleet of 12 ambulances, 10 active. The most ambulances on duty is seven, and the least is four. The average peak call time is from 1 a.m.-7 p. m.
Ambulances are based at five locations - the EMS base on Southridge Drive; the Regional West Fire Protection Station on Apache Trail; the Cole County Fire Protection Stations at Brazito and County Park; and Monday through Friday at the Cole County Jail.