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The Board reviewed the following memo dated 9/19/88: TO: William Collins DATE: September 19, 1988 Acting County Administrator SUBJECT: Application for Renewal of Indian River County Vol- unteer Ambulance Squad. Certificate of Public Con- venience and Necessity for EMS BLS Service FROM: Doug Wright REFERENCES: Indian River County EMS Director ,,,.Ordinance #87-66 It is requested that the information contained herein be formally con- sidered by the Board of County Commissioners at the next regular scheduled meeting. DESCRIPTION AND CONDITIONS The Indian River County Volunteer Ambulance Squad was formed on May 1 1966. and has been operating continuously since the initial Certifi- cate of Public Convenience and Necessity was issued. The Squad has submitted an application for renewal of the existing Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity per the Ordinance referenced above. An inquiry has been conducted.. and the findings are reflected in this report. The Squad has responded to a total of 3,524 calls during 1988 as of the middle of September. The EMS provider has experienced the same problems as other volunteer entities in the last few months in terms of funding and staffing. Staffing problems appear to prevail when compared to other issues. Since January, 1988, the Squad Board of Directors has approved the hiring of eight (8) EMT's to be utilized as needed to fully staff the daytime shifts. The paid EMT's now are used to cover twenty-one (21) crews and volunteer EMT's cover seventy-nine (79) crews. IRCVAS now staffs nine (9) crews per day (4 shifts x 2 + 1 mainside from the 6P to 12 midnight shift). This represents that 21% of the crews are staffed by paid EMT's and 79% are staffed by vol- unteer EMT's. At present three (3) shifts are covered (0001-1800) with two (2) crews, one each at the beach and mainland station. The 1800- 2400 shift is staffed with three (3) crews with two (2) mainland and bne at the beach station. The Squad currently has one hundred eighty-two (182) active volunteers of all categories of which 57 are EMT's and 125 fall into other cate- gories. Fifteen (15) volunteers are presently on leave of absence. but are expected to return for shift work at various times. For the period of January -July, 1988, the Squad lost ten (10) volunteers and gained twenty-five (25) for a net gain of fifteen (15) volunteers. The loss of volunteers can be attributed to: 1. IRCVAS coming on-line to Central Communications and certain dispatchers leaving because they felt their involvement was diminished in day to day operations of the Squad; 2. Increased requirements and training to retain certification; 3. Normal attrition and. discipline problems. Although the schedules reflect that the shifts were scheduled to be fully staffed for each. period of time, there has been occasions when a firefighter EMT or a volunteer not on.duty had to be summoned or picked up on short notice to staff a make-up crew for the BLS vehicle for response to a call. However, it should be noted that no fire- fighter ire- fighter has been utilized during 199a. - 32 99a. - 0C- 1 r 1988 32 HOF 74 FGE476