A manager with Pafford EMS told the Leflore County Board of Supervisors on Monday that he does not understand why Greenwood Leflore Hospital has not been cooperating with the county’s transfer of ambulance services.
Tony Fabela, operations manager, said that under normal circumstances, when a new ambulance service moves into a county, it is an “unwritten rule” that the current one moves out. The supervisors chose Pafford over MedStat last February, but the hospital has continued to use MedStat in some cases while using Pafford in others.
“This is the first time that I’ve personally ever dealt with this — with a service not pulling out,” Fabela said.
The supervisors also had discussed the hospital and Pafford at their last meeting. Reginald Moore, the supervisors’ president, said then that he would visit with the hospital to discuss the possibility of transferring its transportation services from MedStat to Pafford after District 4 Supervisor Eric Mitchell said the hospital’s annual contract with MedStat was automatically renewing this month.
Mitchell again added the ambulance topic to the board’s agenda this week to get more updates.
Moore said Monday that when he met with the hospital’s CEO, Jason Studley, he was told that the hospital was working with both companies and was staggering the calls between the two.
Fabela said this is not correct. Although the ambulance service was also told that there would be “a one-to-one ratio,” it has not been happening, he claimed.
Fabela, who had spoken about this same issue in May, said that Pafford has only received 60 transfers since July, but he estimated that the hospital has about 100 a month. He added most of these 60 transfers have been in the middle of the night or on weekends, are nonpaid or involve COVID-19-positive patients.
“It is time for us to have our shot,” he said. “We have been very quiet; we have sat back and done what we are supposed to do. We have provided times; we have provided facilities; we have done everything that has been asked. And we have done everything that we said that we were going to do. So now it is time for us to move forward to be contracted solely for this county.”
District 1 Supervisor Sam Abraham said that he was still unsure what more the supervisors can do. He said the decisions are in the hospital’s hands, and “as a board, all we can do is ask the hospital.”
Fabela said this is a big issue financially. Although 911 is extremely important to the residents in the county, an ambulance service depends on paid transports from nursing facilities and hospitals for most of its revenue, he said.
Fabela said he was told by Studley that the hospital does not want to side solely with one ambulance service because he prefers the idea of two services for better response times. But Fabela said this will be detrimental to all involved.
“Two ambulance services can and will not financially survive with the call volume within this county,” he said.
Robert Collins, vice president of the board, said he fears that this kind of response will discourage ambulance services from working with the county in the future.
Fabela said that Pafford representatives would be attending the hospital board’s meeting on Feb. 16.
He also plans to start a business campaign with local nursing homes about their services.
•Contact Adam Bakst at 581-7233 or abakst@gwcommonwealth.com. On Twitter at @AdamBakst_GWCW.
