In Our View: New transport ambulance offers benefits

In a county with 521,000 people, it’s no wonder there are a lot of calls for ambulance service. In fact, in a typical year there are more than 30,000 calls for an ambulance. Most of the calls are handled by a private company, American Medical Response, which deploys a fleet of ambulances and more than 125 paramedics serving the Vancouver area and most of Clark County.

But as of Jan. 1, there’s a new ambulance on call in portions of north Clark County and the Woodland area. Last week Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue showed off the first of its two planned ambulances and talked about how they have been integrated into the county’s emergency response plan, becoming the first new ambulance transport provider in decades. Rather than compete with AMR, the new service will provide a faster option to get patients to the hospital in some cases, such as when AMR units are all busy or a long way from a rural call.

Fire Rescue Chief John Nohr has been talking about adding transport service for some time. AMR is contractually obligated to respond to 90 percent of calls north of 179th Street in 20 minutes or less. South of 179th Street, the contract calls for 90 percent of calls to be answered in 10 minutes or less. But Nohr has said that since the pandemic, AMR has had trouble staffing enough ambulances in north Clark County. That’s delayed some patients’ arrival to hospitals, and also forced Fire Rescue’s paramedics to linger at scenes, rather than get back into service.

The new ambulance and its equipment cost about $500,000 and was purchased last May by the district, using a gift from the Cowlitz Tribal Foundation. (The foundation is also a contributor to The Columbian’s Community Funded Journalism program.) Based at Fire Station 21 at 911 N. 65th Ave. in Ridgefield, it was used for first response until Jan. 1, when it began transporting patients to hospitals.

By the time the press conference was held on Thursday, the unit, dubbed Medic 21, had already been used to transport patients suffering a heart attack, acute respiratory distress and traumatic injuries. These most urgent calls will be the focus of the ambulance, which is staffed by two firefighter-paramedics, Assistant Chief Mike Jackson said. AMR will continue to answer less urgent calls from the roughly 52,000 people who live in Clark-Cowlitz’s 150-square-mile service area.

AMR and local first responders have worked closely together here for decades. But this hybrid service, where both a private provider and a fire protection district will answer calls in one area, appears to be new to Clark County. In east Clark County, the Camas-Washougal Fire Department has long operated its own ambulance transport services within the city limits of both communities and the surrounding 80 square miles served by East County Fire and Rescue. In the northeast part of Clark County, plus parts of Cowlitz and Skamania counties, North Country EMS has offered ambulance service since 1976. It serves nearly 1,000 square miles from its bases at Fargher Lake and Yacolt.

Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue plans to supplement its new Medic 21 unit with a second ambulance, probably sometime later this year. It will be used as a backup and will be stationed at one of the district’s other stations. It, too, will be funded and equipped by the Cowlitz Tribal Foundation.

As anyone who has called an ambulance will attest, even 10 minutes is a long time to wait. This new service will make that wait less painful.