By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
For the past couple of months, Great Bend EMS has been trying a pilot program to best learn how to serve the residents in its service area. During Monday’s city council meeting, Councilmember Davis Jimenez asked for clarification about the pilot and what it means for future policy. Great Bend Fire Chief Brent Smith was present to respond.
“As of the right now with the pilot program, we are transporting to the closest facility, which for most people in the city of Great Bend, is KU Med Center,” Smith said. “In our outlying areas, if that happens to be Pawnee Rock and it is actually closer to go to Larned, we’ll go to Pawnee Valley.”
Councilmember Kevyn Soupiset asked if EMS was considering time or mileage involved with the trips. Smith said the difference is marginal, but the pilot program is based on mileage, with a dividing line around Northeast 40 Road as the divider between transporting patients to Clara Barton in Hoisington, or the University of Kansas Health Systems – Great Bend Campus. Patients closer to outlying hospitals, including Ellinwood, can still choose to be transported to Great Bend. Smith said the pilot was started out of necessity.
“At one point in time, we were down to two ambulances out of our four running,” he said. “We base it off of red-flag days, the weather, street conditions with ice and snow. We started putting numbers to it. When we look at 40 minutes extra to make a trip to Ellinwood, Pawnee Valley, or Clara Barton over staying local at KU, that’s 76 hours that the truck is out of our area, not available for the citizens it’s meant to serve.”
Now that the pilot is over, Smith is crunching the numbers and reaching out to others to set a permanent policy. For at least the time being, patients who are closer to the Great Bend Campus will be transported there. Patients may still arrange their own transportation to other hospitals.