Carilion Hospital Topics
January 3, 2009
Inadequate Giles County Emergency Ambulance Service
The Operations and Management Agreement for Emergency Medical Services between Carilion and Giles County provides for emergency medical services for county citizens as follows:
The agreement intends to assure that an appropriate level of emergency ambulance service is available to all persons within the corporate limits of Giles County. It requires all emergency medical service vehicles (EMSV) to be equipped and staffed at the Advanced Life Support (ALS) Level. The agreement allows Carilion to determine the appropriate level of emergency ambulance service and the number of EMSVs necessary to provide such service. This is where this agreement starts to depart from the best interests of Giles County citizens.
During the hours of 6 a.m. - 10 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Carilion will have at least one EMSV dedicated to the county. During all other hours, Carilion will provide emergency ambulance service IF IT HAS an EMSV in the County that is not on call or in the process of accepting another call. While in operation, ambulances shall be staffed with at least one emergency medical technician who shall be certified as EMT-Cardiac (now known as EMT Intermediate), or EMT-Paramedic in addition to other basic life support personnel required by regulations published by the Office of EMS.
What all of this means is that if you are a citizen of Giles County you had best NEVER have the need for an emergency ambulance call from Carilion during the hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday - Friday and 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Don’t blame Carilion for this dangerous situation, after all they are a business and should be expected to make good business decisions.
If you are unfortunate enough to have a serious heart-attack during these hours, plainly stated - you will probably die for the lack of necessary cardiac emergency ambulance response. So how will you receive this service?
It can be argued that the Giles County Rescue Squad picks up the slack when Carilion isn’t available, but these good folks are all volunteers, some of whom work full-time jobs, and cannot be expected to be available 24/7 or during the hours that Carilion isn’t available.
If county money is the problem, there are numerous other county expenditures that are far less important than this critical need for county citizens.
Contact the county supervisors and ASK if they can take immediate action to correct this dangerous arrangement between Carilion and Giles County. If you choose to not voice your concern, this could prove to be a life or death decision for you and/or others.
Doug Turner
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County Relationship With Carilion
November 18, 2008
I think it's wonderful that we have a fine hospital in Giles County.
However, when our county administrator and supervisors award the hospital monopolized services, such as ambulance services, and then pad the hospital's bottom line by paying them a huge amount of money each year for their sometimes on, sometimes off ambulance service, well this is a bit too much to turn your cheek the other way and not complain.
The Giles Carilion Hospital and County Administrator Chris McKlarney have developed a very cozy relationship during his employment as the Giles County Administrator. So cozy that the contract between the county and Carilion for their ambulance service for county citizens is very lopsided in favor of Carilion.
The county pays Carilion in excess of $165,000 per year for their ambulance service. This is above and beyond the monetary compensation Carilion receives from Medicare, Medicaid, and health insurance companies. Carilion charges over $1,000.00 to transport a patient from Pearisburg to Roanoke and believe it or not they charge another $1,000.00 plus for their return trip to Pearisburg, without the patient.
Although Carilion has a monopoly on ambulance service in Giles County, their contract with the county doesn’t require 24/7 coverage for county citizens. Certain days of the week Carilion isn’t required to respond to ambulance calls during the period 10:00 pm to 6:00 am.
Let citizens beware that if you are going to have a heart attack, by all means don’t have it between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am because Carilion is off duty during these hours for about 3 days each week.
Wouldn’t you think our supervisors would be aware of this situation and take action to ensure ambulance service, with certified paramedics not just EMT’s, every day of the week and 24 hours during each of those days?
Mr. McKlarney’s favoritism toward Carilion goes beyond the above example. Construction of the new Carilion hospital is being subsidized with approximately $3-4 million Giles County taxpayer dollars. Don’t you want to ask if Monroe County citizens are paying anything for construction of the Carilion hospital? Ask Mr. McKlarney.
Mr. McKlarney seems to view Carilion as just another employer for West Virginia citizens. I have nothing against those good people and as a matter of fact I know some of them well enough to call them friends. When we take a close look at the employment situation in Giles County it’s somewhat alarming to see how many jobs are being performed by citizens from outside Giles County. We need to employ Giles County citizens before we start giving jobs within the county to non-county residents.
Appalachian Power, Celanese, and Carilion employ a good number of non-Giles County citizens who enjoy the benefits of our roads, industry, and other infrastructure without paying one dirty penny to the county.
Maybe the county should consider exploring whether they can impose a county payroll tax for non-county residents who are employed in the county.