Emergency medical services 'at a crisis point'

The Bigfork Eagle continues its series of articles about the pressure of growth on local services and organizations.

By LAURA BEHENNA

Bigfork Eagle

As Bigfork grows, so does the need for emergency medical services - and most of those services are provided almost entirely by volunteers.

The need for emergency medical service (EMS) volunteers is growing much faster than the supply of people available for the job, according to Derek Vandeberg, director of operations for Bigfork Volunteer Ambulance (BVA). For example, back in 1983, BVA had 20 volunteer responders and answered 71 emergency calls. In 2006, BVA had 24 responders - only four more than 13 years before - and answered 500 calls.

“We’re already at a crisis point,” Vandeberg said. “We’re seeing a real change in volunteerism because we lead incredibly busy lives.”

Some volunteers stay because they find the work rewarding and some because they know they’re needed, he said. It’s difficult to recruit volunteer medical responders because they must have a minimum of 40 hours of training before they can start working, he added.

That 40 hours trains a person to be an emergency medical technician (EMT) First Responder who can provide basic life support services, care for wounds and help with ambulance transport crew, he said. But volunteers need lots more training to handle the range of emergencies they’re asked to respond to.

“Many of us have 200 to 300 hours of training” Vandeberg said. A full-fledged paramedic studies for 18 months and has thousands of hours of classroom and field training.

In addition, not all of BVA’s trained volunteer responders are available to go out on a call at any given time. Other EMS agencies in the valley are short-staffed too, and if another unit requests back-up assistance from BVA, fewer or no responders are available to help Bigfork-area callers. On days when multiple calls come in, that could be a real problem.

Because BVA recognizes it can no longer meet the community’s burgeoning needs with an all-volunteer force, the organization now has several paid staff, including one full-time paramedic, two part-time paramedics, a bookkeeper, a training coordinator and a service technician who takes care of the ambulances and equipment, Vandeberg said.

Someone is on call “every hour of every day,” he said. “We need to ensure we have the coverage all the time.” He expects BVA to have paid staff on call 24 hours a day by the summer of 2008. However, BVA will always be a volunteer agency “as long as it’s fiscally prudent and as long as people are willing to help,” he said.

The agency’s biggest current project is its capital campaign to build a facility at highways 82 and 35 to house ambulances, a medical aid car and a full-time paid staff. One of BVA’s current two ambulances is housed at the Ferndale Fire Department.

“We’re building a facility that will meet our needs for the next 20 years,” he said.

BVA’s goal is to raise $950,000 to pay for land, construction and furnishings, according to the agency’s Web site. The Bigfork Fire Department has shared its space with BVA for nearly 30 years, “but the Fire Department is bursting at the seams as it is,” Vandeberg said. “Unlike county fire departments, Bigfork Volunteer Ambulance is not a tax-supported entity, and relies solely on donations and billing [for] services. BVA doesn’t wish to be a burden or to impact the Fire Department’s budget.”

“Our expenses exceed our income [from service fees], so without donations we wouldn’t be around,” he said. “Until county, state and federal governments understand medical services are as great a need for a community as fire and police protection, we’ll have to rely on donations.”

BVA has already started seeking donations for its new facility, and it will start holding fundraising events this spring, Vandeberg said.

“When we ask, the community gives,” he said. “It’s a pretty fantastic cause. There are as many people who would love to give $5 as people who would love to give $5,000.”

People who have received BVA services often become donors, many donations come from bequests, he said.

BVA’s long-term goals include recruiting and keeping more volunteers, which it does mainly by offering free training, he said. It plans to offer another First Responder course this spring. People interested in volunteering should call the BVA business office at 837-2521.

Vandeberg said he finds working at the gallery and frame shop he and his wife own rewarding, “but this [working for BVA] is rewarding on an entirely different level. We’re able to help so much, and for me, being able to do this is like being given a wonderful present.”

Volunteers often find themselves responding to calls from people they know, Vandeberg said.

“When you call 911, it’s your family, friends and neighbors who show up. That in itself is an incredible gift.”

On the Web: www.bigforkambulance.org