Published May 24 in The Big Sandy News

Prestonsburg dispatchers are told to guess call seriousness

By SUSAN ALLEN and LEIGH ANN WARD
Big Sandy News Floyd County Bureau

PRESTONSBURG — Prestonsburg’s fire department emergency medical service workers are now only to respond to car accidents with injuries or situations 911 dispatchers deem to be life threatening under a memo by Mike Ormerod, who heads up the city’s public safety department.

In the memo, 911 dispatchers are being asked to determine whether an emergency call to dispatch could be serious enough to send out EMS workers with the fire department. Calls that are deemed not to be life threatening are to be directed to private ambulance services, according to the memo.

Discussion on the issue came up at Wednesday’s meeting of the city’s personnel committee prior to a special city council meeting. Councilman Billy Ray Collins said too many fire department workers were responding to emergency calls and the city needs to look at ways to save money.

Some city workers feel the memo from Ormerod is a result of the fire department’s refusal to change lights on the West Prestonsburg bridge because the structure is too dangerous for anyone to be on it. Also, firefighters were reportedly ordered last week to clean off flood mud from the Prestonsburg High School parking lot by using a shovel rather than a back hoe which is the usual procedure. Some workers also question why the issue of saving money is being discussed by the city’s personnel committee rather than the finance committee.

Assistant Fire Chief Larry Adams told members of the city’s personnel committee on Wednesday he didn’t feel dispatchers should have to make such a determination if an emergency call was a life or death issue.

Dispatch supervisor Missy Peppi also told committee members it would be difficult for dispatchers to know from a telephone call if a situation warranted calling city EMS workers or having a private ambulance service respond. Peppi said the city’s procedure manual was unclear in certain situations on emergency issues.

At Wednesday’s committee meeting, Councilman Hansel Cooley said it didn’t matter how fast emergency personnel responded because it took hours for a patient to be seen at Highlands Regional Medical Center.

“It’s a band aid station,” Cooley said. “You don’t need to be in a hurry to send them to the emergency room...They don’t get in a hurry down there. It doesn’t matter if you’re bleeding out of every part of your body.”

HRMC spokesperson Kathy Rubado disagreed with Cooley’s characterization.

“I’m sorry that Mr. Cooley feels that way,” Rubado said. “We’ve been running on a particularly high census and so have all the hospitals in our area.”

Rubado said the public is unaware of some detailed procedures required before patients can be admitted to the hospital. For example, Rubado said if a person has a family physician, that doctor has to approve the patients admission. She added she was very proud of the hospital.

Prestonsburg’s City Council is expected to discuss the new procedure at a future meeting. 

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