Trustees question "band aid" ambulance

Sundance has a temporary new ambulance, leased from a Sioux Falls company as a “band aid” solution to the urgent issue of there being just one fully functioning vehicle left in the city’s fleet. However, at Thursday’s meeting of the Crook County Medical Services District Board of Trustees, it transpired that the new ambulance might not quite be what the board expected.

The ambulance is a two-wheel drive Ford van, which the district is leasing for six months at a cost of $2500 per month. The board gave the go-ahead at last month’s meeting on the understanding that a short term lease would provide breathing room to come to a longer term agreement.

In that discussion, recalled Chairman Mark Erickson, the board was led to believe that the ambulance would be “newer” than any the district currently owns. The one working vehicle in the fleet is a 1998 model.

“What are we getting for our money for $30,000 a year?” he asked CEO Nathan Hough.

Trustees were surprised to hear that the leased ambulance is a 2002 model with 139,000 miles on the clock and that it is also not the four-wheel drive model they feel is necessary for the terrain in this area. Erickson stated that the impression the board had was that they would be leasing something a lot newer and he had assumed it would be less than five years old.

Hough explained that the district’s ambulance director picked out the most appropriate model in the selection to meet the required needs. He further noted that the $2500 also covered active maintenance – the district is not responsible for fixing anything on the ambulance that goes wrong.

Hough also provided an explanation for the gap in what the board had expected and what had been obtained. The Sioux Falls company can and will provide a newer ambulance, built specifically to the district’s specifications, he said.

This possibility had been discussed at the previous meeting and met with approval from the board. However, he explained, the Sioux Falls company will only build a custom ambulance for a longer term lease.

He reminded the board that they agreed to initiate the emergency six-month lease immediately to tide the district over until the specifics of a long-term agreement were discussed. This was done to ensure the ambulance service was not left hanging in the meantime, without enough vehicles to function properly.

The Sundance fleet is made up of three vehicles, he reminded the board: one which is functional, a second that has electrical issues and a third that has a serious issues and, as described by Karl Rude, President of Health Management Services, would only ever be taken back out for “an absolute Armageddon-level emergency”.

“Where we were at that point was needing an ambulance as quickly as we could,” Hough reminded the board. “[The leased vehicle] is the best one we’ve got right now. What we’re leasing right now is a band aid to get us through.”

Hough told the board that, since that time, he has initiated discussions with nearby districts and other experts and secured funding for a community needs study. A third-party survey, it can be very helpful when seeking grants, he explained, because an impartial source has identified that the ambulance really is necessary.

However, he said, it generally takes up to nine months for such a study to be completed, though in this case a rush will be put on the process and it should be done within five months.

Erickson stated that he would like to put a timeline on the long-term solution and have a plan and expenses figured out by the board’s February meeting. Rude reiterated that any solution will be pending until the community needs assessment is done; however, he readily agreed to prepare a report analyzing the possible vehicle types and lease options available to the district.