Clark County resident Christine Horsley was afraid to call 911 recently when her mother was having a medical issue. She wanted to drive her to the hospital herself, but her mom couldn't get out of bed.
Ultimately, they called 911, and a New Chapel EMS ambulance arrived to take her mother to the hospital, but it left her feeling uneasy.
“I was panicking the whole time,” she told Clark County Commissioners at their Thursday meeting. “Were they going to have all the supplies they needed? Were they going to be able to deal with what was going on with her? I didn’t know. For the first time in my life, I'm scared to have to call an ambulance and not to just get my mom in the car myself and try to transport her to the hospital.”
Amid ongoing community concern that there’s not enough EMS service for residents, Clark County Commissioners voted Thursday in favor of a move to add another EMS provider in the area.
New Chapel is currently operating under a contract for service to the entire county. It expires at the end of 2025.
The organization has experienced staffing issues in recent months, amid the fallout of the criminal investigation of former CEO Jamey Noel. He is currently facing 31 felonies, some related to allegations he and his family spent millions in company funds over several years.
Clark County Emergency Management Director Gavan Hebner told the commissioners Thursday that health officials don’t feel New Chapel has the staffing to cover their contract right now.
Hebner recommended reaching out to other providers “so that our citizens know when they call 911, they will get an ambulance,” he said.
This would address the immediate need to stabilize service, he said, while officials also look to long-term plans to provide emergency medical coverage.
Clark County Commissioners President Bryan Glover said in an interview he has concerns about EMS service to Clark County.
“Up until this point, we've had some hiccups and we've had some road bumps but we've seemed to have been able to overcome some of those things,” he said. “It's never going to be perfect. You're always going to have those issues that are outstanding, and you have to deal with them. It just seems now that it's becoming maybe more frequent, or the level of concern is raised.”
Staffing concerns
The decision to approve the additional EMS provider comes less than two months after 10 New Chapel employees resigned in one day, leaving the organization short-staffed for weekend shifts. Those employees worked in the New Albany Township Fire Protection District. When the district board cut New Chapel’s contract early and started their own department in May, those staffers stayed on with the new company.
S. Coy Travis, an attorney and spokesperson for New Chapel, previously told LPM News they addressed the staffing gap quickly, and reached out to local departments they have mutual aid agreements with as well as Clark County officials.
Clark County Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel issued a statement June 5 saying the county had mitigation plans in place to help with the immediate shortage and to step in if the issue got worse. That’s what’s happening now.
How does the additional service work?
Yazel said he and other health representatives will work to secure a contract with an additional provider, which he says is expected to be in place this month.
He said county health leaders have had discussions with other EMS providers in recent months and received preliminary quotes on service before Thursday’s vote. On Friday afternoon, they got formal quotes.
Current negotiations include the addition of three to four ambulances, but the county needs a service that could also scale up to cover the entire area if things change.
Yazel said once the contract is signed, the new provider could be operational in as little as 72 hours.
The county started looking at possible backup plans early in the investigation into Noel, in case service with New Chapel was interrupted.
But Yazel said they were also concerned that New Chapel may start to lose staff over the situation, and what that would do to the employees who remained.
“And some of these issues that have come up over the last few weeks or even months are signs of that,” he said. “And there’s no reason to think there’s any fix to that in the near future.”
There’s a shortage of EMS workers in Indiana.
New Chapel after Noel
Travis, the New Chapel spokesperson, told LPM News Thursday before the meeting that they’re working to fill those holes in staffing. They’ve hired some since losing 10 in one day, but a few others have left.
“I think it would be very disingenuous for me to say it isn't impacting service in some way,” he said of the staffing shortage. “We're having to ask our people to help make up hours and time that other staff would be working if we had those staff right now. And so that's going to cause a strain. That's going to cause stress.”
But he said “are going above and beyond to try to help make sure that the impact is as limited as possible.”
A recent scheduling error left the county without any paramedics on duty for part of one day last week.
“We fully own that mistake [and] don't want to try to make any kind of excuses for it,” he said. “We have to do better than that. And we're going to do better than that.”
Travis said they have been working to improve internal processes.
He told the commissioners in the meeting New Chapel wants to be open when there are issues, and keep working with the county to improve services, including steps they’ve taken since Noel left, “because nobody should be scared to call 911,” he said.
He said after the meeting New Chapel is “willing to partner in whatever way the county sees fit,” he said, later adding that they “look forward to being part of the solution.”
Travis also said New Chapel hasn’t been invoicing the county for two months. He said they’re waiving that time period.
This story has been updated to correct the title of Clark County Emergency Management Director Gavan Hebner.
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