Minutes LMC Meeting – January 2017

THESE MINUTES ARE BEING POSTED UNAPPROVED

AT THE NEXT MEETING THESE MINUTES WILL BE APPROVED

THE APPROVAL PROCESS MAY CHANGE SOME SENTENCE STRUCTURE OR

WORDS, BUT SHOULD NOT SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGE THE CONTENT

Minutes of the Regular LMC Meeting of January 26, 2017

Present: Brett Hopper, Amanda Groshens, Chuck Kaufman, Karen Kozer, Ron Gray, Susan Long, Kevin Miller, Jim Domeier, Ryan Dougherty, Michelle Henry, Mike Oliverius, Anne Handahl, April Anderson, Cory Kissling and Dave Matteson.

Minutes taken by Amanda Groshens.

Meeting called to order at 1330 hours.

Minutes approved from November meeting as submitted.

AHEMS Updates

Finances

The operating income for December 2016 was $1,707,000 which was $336,000 favorable to budget and year to date operating income was $18,857,000 which was $3,246,000 favorable to plan. Net revenue was $794,000 ahead of plan, total salaries were $70,000 behind plan and non-salary expenses were $388,000 behind plan. We had 93 less transports billed than were budgeted but discounts were very favorable. RCM was behind in November and now has caught back up. Gases and oxygen bill was extremely high and being looked into. We purchased many AED for HeartSafe program and new furniture at several bases. Overall, we finished the year $3.2 million ahead of plan.

**Every year AHEMS creates a budget to guide operations and provide expectations for recapitalization of the organization. When you hear us use the term “behind plan” this refers to the fact we are performing at a rate that will leave us short of our established goal. This does not mean we are losing money; we’re just not making the amount we targeted before January 1st. Likewise, the term “ahead of plan” refers to the fact we are doing even better than was predicted which is a wonderful situation!**

Protected Drivers

Last week Special Transportation drivers completed eight hour training for Protected Drivers. We were ready to launch program when legal posed a question. They wanted clarification about what happens when the patient who is voluntary states they no longer wants to be transported. A policy was drafted that states the driver will let patient out in a public place and notify dispatch. Dispatch will then notify law enforcement. At this time we are still waiting to hear from legal to move forward. These transports have a 100 mile radius limitation at this time.

New Ambulance Update

There has been a slowdown in getting the new ambulances on the street due to a customs issue. The Ferno packs, mounts and steel plates were held in customs in the Czech Republic. They have since arrived and are being installed. We are adding 13 trucks to the fleet this year which will be replacing 13 vehicles with the highest mileage. They are starting in Cambridge and Buffalo which have smaller work groups to gain feedback before they are introduced into the North and South Metro.

IAEP 167 Updates

IAEP 167 Elections 2017

The local will be holding elections for four board members positions at the end of the month. The positions up for election are President, District Vice President Metro EMT, District Vice President Grand/Forbes, and District Vice President New Ulm/Glencoe/Hutchinson.

Committee Reports

Staffing Committee

The committee last met on November 7, 2016 for the pre bid meeting. Bid rule changes were discussed and approved. The bid will be starting February 6, 2017 and will be completed March 3, 2017. All bid materials were emailed out and posted on January 23, 2017. The Spring/Summer bid will be April 15, 2017 through September 15, 2017. The committee will meet next after the bid is complete. They are being tasked with rewriting the Open Shifts policy to reflect the change to Kronos.

Safety Committee

Safety committee has not met since the last LMC meeting. They meet next in February 2017.

Rumor Control

Regional Manager – Dual Role Fire and EMS

A regional manager works both in an EMS role and Fire role. There have been occurrences where crews are confused about whether the manager is in his EMS role or Fire role on scenes. The crews in the region would like clarification on this. Kevin will follow up.

Critical Care Nine Hour Burn

The 17-05 CC truck got a call at 0120 to North Dakota and there was no 19-07 truck. There were weather issues and communication issues with Life Link 3 availability of fixed wing. This caused the crew to be burned by nine hours. Since this incident, Cory has met with Children’s to try and prevent this. He has asked that if they know a run is coming to give us a head up so we can make staffing arrangements if necessary. Cory will also be addressing the communication issues with Life Link 3 to reduce confusion.

Dispatch Supervisor turned into 610

There was a rumor that this happened and staff did not know about it. There are rare occasions where 610 is busy with an incident and would turn over phone calls and some other duties temporarily to the dispatch supervisor. If this happens, all staff would be notified of this. This can do both ways and 610 could take over for the dispatch supervisor if needed. There is no intention to do this on a regular basis.

Non-Critical Care Medic Usage

There have been several occasions when the critical care trucks are on runs and non-critical care medics are sent on the run even though critical care medics that are not in a critical care truck are available. The policy doesn’t state that critical care medics not in a critical care truck should be considered for these runs first but they should be. This will be looked into. There have also been some instances of transfers that state they were approved by dispatch supervisor or 610 and 610 has no knowledge of this. Dave will follow up on this.

Standing Reports

Managers doing union work report

There were 12 hours reported for November 2016 and two reported for December 2016. There was a total of 361.5 hours reported for 2016 from March through December.

Outsourcing Report

There was $14,001.49 reported of outsourced work for the month of November 2016.

Action Item Review

Ops Sups Keeping up with Staffing Changes

There are lots of staffing changes throughout the day. We are hoping that Mike will help with this in his new role. They are working on notifying staff about shift splitting prior to the start of shift. There are issues with being able to split a shift in Kronos which they are working on. We are hoping to manage staffing changes better.

Uniform Policy Addendum

Jeff is still working on adding approved pins to the uniform policy.

Start of Shift – Log in Process

The policy states that we have three minutes to call in by phone or radio to dispatch to inform them that we are in for start of shift. Only logging into CAD without verbal communication is not acceptable.

VSTs and Mantoux

VSTs do not need mantoux but can have them if they would like them. This will be marked as complete and taken off the list.

Ops/Dispatch Workgroup

The workgroup of dispatch, ops sups and staff has not been created yet. This will be revisited.

Badge Access

Susan states that she received an email that access for all AHEMS employees had been completed. Staff is still having issues gaining access to Allina Hospitals. There are also issues with access to Mother Baby Centers and Children’s Hospitals. Susan will follow up on this.

BLS Getting Burned Data

A report was run using log out time of BLS trucks. This data indicates about one late run every two months. There is concern about the accuracy of this data. There was also a question about what is an acceptable amount of late runs versus an unacceptable amount. BLS should be included in the reports of late runs with all trucks. The same consideration should be given to late runs in BLS as has been done for critical care. Management will use the data as a starting point to make it more accurate and adjust BLS as necessary.

Naming of Hospitals in CAD, EMMA and Phones

This is a work in progress. They will be getting a list from ImageTrend of the hospitals and making the naming consistent throughout. There will be follow up at next meeting.

Fueling and End of Shift Duties

There are differences between areas in end of shift duties and equipment storage, especially gas cards. We are working on trying to make things more consistent. There have been a large number of lost gas cards in the north metro.

CAAS Accreditation Update

In 2016 we completed six of the ten areas required. The seventh area is policies and procedures which is the biggest and most time consuming. We are working on getting all the policies on the same format and making sure we have all required policies by CAAS. We are looking to have all areas complete and application in by June. The site visit would be in the fall. Kevin will be sending out an update to all staff on progress.

New Business

Quality Council Committee

This is a new committee that was medical director driven to create. This committee will review how we are doing with patient care and how we can improve. This committee is looking for one paramedic, one EMT and one dispatcher. This time is paid time. Amanda will post for interest.

Recruitment and Retention

There is a paramedic shortage nationwide and we are looking to hire 40 paramedics in 2017. There is a bonus of $2000 for paramedics with zero to two years of experience and $5000 for paramedics with more than two years of experience. They will also been looking at applying this to other job classes such as dispatchers and mechanics.

ERU Vehicle Plans

The ERU team does not need an ambulance and were wondering if they could get a supervisor vehicle when one is replaced. They are not required to have their own gear in their vehicles, respond to the EV, find an available truck and then respond to location which is delaying the rest of the team. This will be looked into further.

Hutchinson/Glencoe Unrestricted Call Make Up

Employees in Hutchinson and Glencoe that take time off are required to “make up” call shifts that are taken off later in the quarter. Employees in these areas would like to see the call hour requirement adjusted for the quarter if they take call shifts off, so they truly get “time off”. Kevin, Pat and Amanda discussed this prior to LMC and Kevin and Pat will further discuss to come up with a possible solution. This will be an action item for next meeting.

MV Fleet and Equipment Condition

There are many trucks that have over 300,000 miles and often items are not getting repaired. There are trucks that have issues listed on SharePoint to get repaired but aren’t due to vehicle not being available. This is a communication issue that they are working on. There is also a request in to add four more trucks to the fleet. They are also working on better tracking of equipment which has been an issue. There have also been issues with switching BLS trucks over to ALS and missing equipment. This is due to no process in place and will be looked into. There is still an issue with the truck height of the bariatric truck and there has been more training done on it. They are looking at other options for bariatric trucks.

Next Meeting Date:

February 23, 2017 at 1330 at the Mounds View Conference Room.

Adjourned at 1555 hours.