Staff Writer
LIMESTONE, Maine — Limestone’s contract for ambulance services with The Aroostook Medical Center that began in 1998 expired earlier this year. The Limestone Selectpeople will meet at 6:30 this evening to continue discussion on the Agreement for Ambulance Services with the Aroostook Medical Center that was started during the March 4 meeting. It is anticipated that a representative from Crown Ambulance will be in attendance at the meeting to answer questions of Selectpeople.
According to discussion by Selectman Jim Leighton during the March 4 meeting, the new contract strays from the previous contract in multiple ways, including the lack of stipulation that an ambulance be in Limestone for at least 16 hours a week and the possibility of a 5 percent increase a year for all five contracted years.
Many questions held by the Selectpeople stem from the current situation between Crown Ambulance and Presque Isle.
“I know that the city of Presque Isle decided not to go with Crown Ambulance and they’re also not paying a Crown a stipend,” said Selectman Paul Poitras at the March 4 meeting. “If we did sign [an agreement], I would like to know what’s going to happen in the next years with the other towns that are buying services from Crown; how are they going to receive this, and are they going to say ‘Presque Isle isn’t paying for ambulance services, why should we?’”
“Presque Isle’s take on this is that they’re not going to pay the ambulance fee because of the tax exempt buildings that Presque Isle has within the city that belong to Crown Ambulance or TAMC,” explained Town Manager Donna Bernier during the same meeting.
“The biggest reason why we can’t remain in Limestone on a full-time basis is that there isn’t a big enough population or call volume to support a crew being there on a full-time basis,” explained Vice President of Ancillary Patient Services at TAMC, Jim McKenney. “What we look for is around 375 to 400 calls a year to support a full-time bases. In 2007, there were 229 calls and there were 238 calls in 2006.”
Though Crown Ambulance currently schedules a crew to Limestone for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the Limestone crew is sent elsewhere should another crew call in sick or be away on a transfer.
For most of 2008, response times by Crown Ambulance to Limestone have taken longer than the average response time in the Aroostook EMS region; one December response in 2008 took 81 minutes, which was double the average response time for that month.
According to statistics compiled by Maine Ambulance Run Data System, The average response time of Crown Ambulance to 9-1-1 calls in Limestone for 2008 was 8 minutes, while the same average for 2007 was 7 minutes.
