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Cleburne County Hospital Board approves budget for ambulance service

Friday, January 25, 2013

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Scores of Cleburne County residents filled the Cleburne County Nursing Home's cafeteria on Thursday to learn about potential privatization of ambulance service for nearly 15,000 county residents (Photo: M. Dean Smith)

HEFLIN - During a heated board meeting attended by nearly 100 residents, the Cleburne County Hospital Board passed a temporary budget which prevents the sale of ambulance service to a private company. The budget was drafted four days before the meeting and presented in the eleventh hour by the hospital board’s most recent appointment Tracy Lambert. “Give me six months and if it doesn’t work I’ll stand up here and I’ll tell everyone that I’m a failure,” Lambert said of his budget proposal.

In March of last year the board hired Ralph Mitchell, a consultant from the Birmingham-based Administrative Services LLC, to evaluate the ambulance service’s operations. Of the options available for the ambulance service, Mitchell recommended outsourcing services to a private company to correct any budget shortfalls experienced by the hospital board.

A presentation by Northstar EMS Inc., a private Tuscaloosa-based company, was scheduled for the meeting. The Northstar EMS presentation never happened, however, once Lambert took the floor and presented his budget. “We’ve cut this down to an $864,000 total budget,” Lambert said. Cleburne County EMS originally requested $948,000 according to Lambert. “That’s over $80,000 in savings,” he said.

Lambert expects that $80,000 savings to keep Cleburne County’s ambulance service running at the same level of service. Most of the savings comes in the form of scheduling changes for employees, particularly unscheduled overtime, which will cut about $7,000 from last year’s budget.

Cleburne County EMS Director Keith Roberts said he has been involved with ambulance service since 1989 and has been aware of budget shortfalls since taking charge three years ago. “When I gave the alarm a few months ago a lot of people dove into action,” he said. Roberts said he did not agree with a private company replacing the Cleburne County EMS for fear the quality of service would not match current operations. “Fixing me and fixing my operation is the solution,” he said.

Advanced EMT Jeremy Hoffman said despite the changes he is thrilled that a budget was passed and outsourcing was avoided. Hoffman knew that changes would have to be made with staffing in order to rescue the struggling service. “I’ll stand behind the changes that have to be made,” Hoffman said.

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Keywords: Cleburne County Hospital Board EMS ambulance Tracy Lambert Bill Cleino Keith Roberts Jeremy Hoffman budget meeting Northstar Tuscaloosa

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