As Talbot County recognizes American Heart Month and readies for its ninth annual CPR training marathon, the county council approved a $39,000 “band-aid” to address increasing response times to medical emergencies.
The Talbot County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to use money in the contingency fund to pay for a part-time Advanced Life Support unit through the end of the fiscal year.
The unit will operate Monday, Wednesday and Friday, through June and will be stationed in the Easton area.
“This is a band-aid,” Clay Stamp, director of the county’s emergency services department, told the council.
During the upcoming budget process for Fiscal Year 2021, he said the agency will be looking at the costs for a sixth full-time ALS crew and whether it could be phased in or not.
County officials said the need for additional funds for ALS highlight the problems stemming from Talbot’s current revenue tax cap.
“This is one of the problems the citizens need to understand when it comes to emergency services and what we have to deal with with the revenue cap,” County Council President Corey Pack said.
“This is a prime perfect example (of the restrictions of the revenue cap)” County Manager Andrew Hollis said. “Each fiscal year, more and more cost goes to public safety without a corresponding increase in revenues.”
Stamp said the agency follows a national standard calling for a response by an Advanced Life Support unit within eight minutes for 90 percent of calls.
But the county’s “response times are going up,” he said. Talbot’s 8-minute ALS response has dipped to 82 percent, as “periods of saturation” have been increasing.
The county operates five ALS units 24/7, with a supervisor also on duty 24/7 to help respond during peak call times.
Talbot’s units respond to about 90 percent of the county’s ALS calls, with the county’s volunteer fire companies handling about 10 percent of such calls, Stamp said. Providing an ALS response, which requires a paramedic and an EMT on each call, can be “quite onerous” on the volunteer departments.
Changing health care dynamics due to federal and state policies have resulted in responding for more patients with complex, chronic illnesses, he said. An aging community and Easton’s role as a regional health care hub also means more calls for emergency medical services.
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The county’s ninth annual CPR training marathon will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, at the Talbot County Community Center on U.S. Route 50 north of Easton. The free CPR and AED training takes about 75 minutes. Register for the training online at talbotdes.org or by calling 410-770-8160.
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