Ambuglances ::: Region I's Official Newsletter

How Will EMS Be Affected By Budget Cuts?

The EMS program has been ranked as 77 out of 77 as a priority by the Georgia Department of Human Resources. This comes in the midst of proposed budget cuts and program eliminations by Governor Sonny Purdue. The Regional EMS Offices are funded annually by federal and state funds. The annual Region 1 EMS budget is $125,000 with $100,000 from the federal preventive health grant and $25,000 from state funds. In addition, the EMS Coordinator salary and benefits are totally state funded and are not a part of the annual budget. According to a plan, programs with a low ranking are targeted for severe budget cuts or complete elimination. As a counter proposal, the EMS office proposes to reduce the amount of regions from 10 to 8, which would coincide with the 8 GEMA areas. The effect on Region 1 would be to add 5 counties but retain the present location and staff. The additional counties added would be Carroll, Coweta, Heard, Dawson and Forsyth. Any comments may be sent to David Loftin at cdloftin@gdph.state.ga.us

Dalton College Has New Paramedic Instructor

Dalton College is pleased to announce the addition of David Newton as the Director of the EMS Training Programs. David comes to us from a satellite program of Lanier Technical College. David has a record of 100% pass rates on his last two courses. The Dalton EMT and Paramedic programs begin on August 25. Welcome, David, to Region 1.

There are still openings in both programs. Sign up today.

Daisy Gantt Resigns

Daisy Gantt will be leaving the Office of EMS Trauma Program to take a position at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah. Good luck, Daisy, and thanks for all you have done for the Georgia Trauma Program.

Phase Two Of Terrorism Grants Awarded

The second round of Terrorism Preparedness Grants have been processed by the GEMA Area 6 All Hazards Council. The Council recommended that the following agencies be funded: Bartow County Fire Department, Dawson County EMA, Ellijay Police Department, Walker County Emergency Services, Rome Fire Department, Gordon County EMA, Carroll County Fire and Rescue, Haralson County Fire Department, Paulding County Board of Commissioners, Catoosa County EMA and Cherokee County Sheriff's Department with the remaining funds partially funding the proposal from the Floyd County Sheriff's Office. In, addition, the funds removed from the Phase 1 grant were recommended to be used to fund Redmond Regional Medical Center EMS and the Rome Police Department. The next round of grants will either be for hospitals or communications equipment.

BTLS Officer Elections To Be Held

Georgia BTLS will be sending election ballots to all the BTLS Instructors in the odd numbered EMS Regions soon. You should vote for your two representatives to serve on the State BTLS Committee on these bollots. A meeting has been scheduled for Sunday, September 28, at UGA Continuing Education Center in Athens to vote on officers and regional reparesentatives from the odd numbered regions. Please submit your ballots promptly.

Problems With Medicaid Crossover Payments?

We have received several e-mails about the elimination of crossover payments for EMS from medicaid. David Bean has denied that this rumor is true but states that electronic problems have occurred causing problems in making the payments. He states that these problems should be resolved soon. The funding for the crossover medicaid payments come from a matching of federal funds and the ambulance license fee payments made by ambulance services in Georgia. The present fee is $2500 plus $1400 per licensed vehicle.

News On Federal House Bill 472

Federal House Bill 472 would have mandated vaccination of public safety personnel with a list of vaccines as a response to bio-terrorism according to dr. Pat O'Neal. This bill is problematic and could cause more problems than it solves particularly in the face of the decision to provide post-event vaccinations against smallpox.

Net Services Using Old Ambulances May Violate Law

Sam Cunningham, EMS Coordinator of Region 7, has discovered that non-emergency transport (NET) services have began using old ambulances as NET vehicles without removing the word "AMBULANCE" on the vehicle. He reminded his providers that this is a violation of the EMS Law and the word ambulance should be removed.

Ban On EMT-Basics On Zoned Units Confirmed by Council

The Region 1 EMS Council confirmed the ban on EMT-Basics use by zoned services by modification of the Regional EMS Zoning Plan. This was done at the last meeting of the EMS Council in Cedartown on July 17. Their recommendation was forwarded to the Board of Human Resources for the final decision. The modified zoning plan is available from the Region 1 EMS Office upon request.

Proposal To Eliminate Paper PCR Forms by 2005

The Office of EMS has made a proposal to eliminate all paper PCR forms by 2005. This will mean that the regional EMS offices will only receive electronic forms submissions and will not process any paper forms. Region 1 has been working toward this goal for the last year and has encouraged services to move to on-line or laptop entry of PCR forms as soon as possible. It has also been redistributing scanners to services with high volumes of calls. Three Region 1 EMS services are presently participating in an on-line PCR data entry trial study - Fannin County EMS, Gilmer County EMS and Ambucare EMS. Many other services are considering going to the laptop method soon. We are dedicated to working with each services to achieve this goal as soon as possible.

Charles Benson Retires From EMS Office

We regretfully report that Charles Benson (pictured on the left with Jim Cutcher) has officially retired from the Office of EMS as the State Training Coordinator. We wish Charles well and thank him for his contributions.

Charles Benson (L) with Jim Cutcher (R).	EJ Dailey presents Charles Benson with an award during the 2003 Georgia EMS Awards banquet.

Do you have a news story you would like published in Ambuglances? If so, let David Loftin know about it. He can be reached via telephone at (706) 295-6154 or via email at cdloftin@gdph.state.ga.us. Let's inform the region about your news!