No change in service expected as ambulance services change on South Shore

Most people won't even notice as ambulance services change on the South Shore July 1. The final touches to the new Cal Tahoe JPA service agreements were made Wednesday in preparation for a change from the City of South Lake Tahoe operating the ambulances that serve the city, to the function being part of the JPA at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

When the City announced over a year ago that they wanted out of the ambulance business, other members of the Cal Tahoe JPA didn't take them seriously. The JPA is the joint agency of Lake Valley Fire and the City of South Lake Tahoe that is contracted with El Dorado County to provide ambulances to the county and city portions of the South Shore.

"People on the street will see no difference," said South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Jeff Meston. "We've had this new system in place since December and its been working well."

"The public won't know any difference," added City Councilman Tom Davis, one of the City's representatives on the JPA board (the other is Mayor Wendy David).

The City transitioned from having firefighter/paramedics on the ambulances to having EMTs and paramedics staff them. A model used across the country, an one that Meston developed for the local service. This allowed Meston to use his firefighters to be in town to protect the community against fire, and not have them on ambulances that have to leave the hill for interfacility transfers, a major part of local ambulance service.

"Sunday night was a great example," said Meston. "A woman was shot, our ambulance team was at the scene and had the victim out of the home and on the gurney and to the hospital in just five minutes...that's unheard of."

Meston added that on Monday night an ambulance team had to transport a person to a psychiatric hospital in St. Helena, Calif, a trip that took the two people off the hill overnight. Had there been a fire emergency it would have been two less firefighters in the city, one of the major reasons for his efforts to change the way ambulances are run on the South Shore.

Ryan Wagoner, the Executive Director of the Cal Tahoe JPA, has worked long hours to get the ambulance service under a new employer, the JPA instead of the City or Lake Valley. The EMTs and Paramedics now housed at Station 2 in South Lake Tahoe (across from the middle school) will get paid by the JPA instead of the City and have new uniforms.

"We pulled the rabbit out of the proverbial hat," said Bob Bettencourt, the Cal Tahoe JPA Board Director.

"We are here to ensure the transition is successful," said Wagoner. He, members of the JPA and the County have been meeting weekly over the last eight weeks to make sure everything was completed and ready to go by July 1.

Think of the new JPA ambulance service as one complete package, with staff, payroll, ambulances and all needed equipment under one roof.

Kim George, ‎Engineer/Paramedic with the City of SLT, has trained the new staff. A new operations person will be hired by the JPA to take over the duties she's provided, along with developing training manuals, training the future staff and other duties.

"They have done a phenomenal job in getting ready," said George of the new EMTs and paramedics. The ambulance staffing of 12 people includes six EMTs and six paramedics, with one of each on the ambulances. Lake Valley Fire will continue to staff their ambulances with a firefighter/paramedic.

Many of the new ambulance employees are recent graduates of the LTCC Fire Academy, or other like academies where getting that first job isn't always an easy one. They will now be able to work as local EMTs and paramedics, perhaps as a stepping stone to becoming firefighter/paramedics in the future.

"This is a great opportunity to start our careers," said Paramedic Andrew Corey who graduated from the LTCC program.

During Tuesday's El Dorado County Board of Supervisor's meeting, the County CEO Don Ashton had them vote on a Memo of Understanding (MOU) with Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority (REMSA) to provide ambulance service to the South Shore should the JPA not get their plan in place by July 1. It was a "what if" vote according to Supervisor Sue Novasel.

"We want the JPA model to work," said Ashton. "I'm relieved it looks like it will. I give credit to Ryan Wagoner and all other parties for doing this."

"It was never a preferred option to have REMSA, and the system in Tahoe has been working well," Ashton added. "Its been very solution oriented."

"They fully understand that as long as long as all requirements are met that the JPA will be taking over operations, added Novasel. "As the ultimate body responsible for ambulance service in SLT, the county needed assurances from the JPA that they could deliver the services on time so that our community was safe, especially given such a busy holiday weekend."

Ashton did say that the Board will vote on a permanent stand-by agreement with REMSA at their July 19 meeting, just to have in place for the future should they be needed.