The May meeting of the Bayfield-Ashland Counties EMS Council was called to order by Gary Victorson, Vice-President of the Council. The meeting was held in the Stockton/Gull Island Rooms of MMC/Ashland. Jan Victorson informed those present that she had received notification from Ron Brendalen, Merrilee Carlson, Dan Diamon, and Dean Hambrecht that they were not be able to attend the meeting due to conflicts.

Motion made by Teresa Gunderson, seconded by Rob Puhls, to approve the minutes of the May meeting as printed. Motion carried.

TREASURER REPORT – No report.

MEDICAL DIRECTOR – No report.

MDAC – No report.

RTAC Dan Diamon, coordinator for the Lake Superior Regional Trauma Advisory Council, reported that one of the train the trainer session for the Wisconsin EMS Emergency Preparedness Plan (WEEPP) including START/JumpSTART, was held Tuesday, June 21st. The next session is scheduled for Thursday, June 30th at the Cable Community Centre. Services who have 80% of their personnel trained before February 28, 2006 will receive a grant of $1400. The next RTAC meeting is July 28th.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT – Jan Victorson asked about compliance with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) requirement to complete the IS-700 course. This course can be completed on-line at www.training.fema.gov or when an individual successfully completes the course they can share it with others. Books and powerpoint visuals are downloadable at the website listed above.

TBI COURSE – The Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) course is being offered at MMC on July 14th. An instructor course will be offered this fall through grant funding from the TBI Foundation.

AMBULANCE SURVEY – South Shore Ambulance sent out a survey to each ambulance service in the Council. Lengthy discussion about price-fixing, billing practices including base rate and mileage charges, and attaining the balance between providing service and supporting services.

STATE EMS – Jan reported that the decision has been approved by Joint Finance to reconfigure the Funding Assistance Program (FAP) taking the $800,000 allocated for education and creating a formula to send that directly to service providers. Several funding formulas are on the table. The state EMS Office has requested paper updates to operational plans for Paramedic services. This request will also be made to Basic services in the near future. They have determined that the electronic filing of the plan does not meet their needs. They will also be expecting updates whenever changes are made to protocols, leadership, etc. The state office has also changed their filing procedures. All information related to a service will be filed in one place rather than sorted by topic.

STANDBY FEES – Discussion about standby fees, rates and contracts.

PAC – Rob Puhls reported that the state Physicians Advisory Council (PAC) has been reviewing the one paramedic systems through Wisconsin and have identified no critical concerns.

WEBSITE – Gene Miller reported that a bug has been identified in the call schedule. He hopes to have that resolved very soon. He encouraged each service that is wishing to participate be compiling email addresses for service members. The address for the demo site is: www.webonthefly.net/ems. The initial cost for the webmaster design is $600 (one time Council-wide cost). The hosting fee is $50 per month (Council-wide cost). An agenda item for the next meeting will be proposals for payment schedule for website.

MEDICAL HELICOPTER – Landing zone nomenclature was discussed. Stan Sadenwasser of Lukes One and Ed Hofstrand of Lifeflight suggested use of location names rather than numbers. They also reminded those present that a pre-designated landing zone is intended to be a tool to get the helicopter in the area, a reference point, not necessarily where to land the helicopter. The helicopter dispatch has the ability to plot the latitude and longitude for the helicopter based upon a road intersection.

Additional discussion about calling for helicopter standby. Both services would encourage field personnel to launch immediately, with a cancel if not needed. If you request launch of a helicopter it is the helicopter dispatchers job to find you a helicopter for response. If a Duluth/Superior medical helicopter is not available, options might include Eau Claire, Brainerd, Cambridge, Marshfield, Twin Cities depending upon your location and availability.

COMMUNICATIONS – Great Divide reported that they have received messages without tones and vice-versa. Is it possible the dispatcher is paging off the Mason tower? Jan encouraged all persons with communications concerns to contact Paul Susienka documenting time and date of the occurrence.

FIREHOUSE FIFTY – Teresa Gunderson requested Council support for the EMS system at the Firehouse Fifty August 6th.

C-SPINE PROTOCOL – Rob asked if the C-spine clearance protocol had been filed as an operational plan update. We may need to clarify the approval of that protocol at the state level. NEXT MEETING – The next Council meeting is scheduled for July 28, 2005, 7:00 PM at MMC.

Motion made by Del Jerome, seconded by Scott Thimm, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned.

IN ATTENDANCE

John Harding Glidden Tam Hofman South Shore Ed Hofstrand SMDC LifeFlight Del Jerome Barnes Teresa Gunderson Mason Gene Miller Barnes Rob Puhls Great Divide Stan Sadenwasser Lukes ONE Scott Thimm Ashland Gary Victorson Iron River and Mason Jan Victorson Bayfield County EM