South Carolina Committee Recommends Hiring EMS Consultant

A committee will recommend hiring Missouri-based Fitch & Associates to do a thorough evaluation of Anderson County’s emergency medical services, which will include analyzing finances and operations of the county’s rescue squads.

County Administrator Rusty Burns, who was on the panel, said the recommendation will be forwarded to the county’s finance committee this week and may be considered as early as Thursday.

“This is merely a recommendation, and the finance committee could go in a different direction,” he said. “And ultimately, it’s up to the full County Council to make the choice, anyway. But we do hope we are close to beginning to develop a scope of work for a consultant and that we can get this study started shortly.”

County Council Chair- man Tommy Dunn said Monday that he is willing to be “absolutely open-minded” about what needs to happen to the county’s emergency medical services system – but he is certain that there is room for improvement.

“I do think that something’s got to change compared to what we’ve got,” Dunn said. “We have already seen one study point out problems, and we’ve got to fix them. We can’t let our EMS not function properly, because in Anderson County, people’s lives depend on it.”

See EMS, 6A

The county normally pays nonprofit rescue squads in Belton, Honea Path, Iva, Pelzer, Pendleton, Townville and Williamston and the private company Medshore Ambulance Service a total of $4 million annually to handle emergency calls throughout the county. Williamston Emergency Medical Services recently closed because it is at least $300,000 in debt and is the subject of a state investigation. The county has entered a contract with Medshore to provide temporary service in the town.

Back in March, accounting firm Greene, Finney & Horton prepared a then-confidential report detailing financial troubles in the county’s smaller rescue squads. The county-commissioned report was made public in July when it was released to the Independent Mail. The original analysis found that rescue squads in Williamston, Honea Path, Pelzer and Townville were all in poor financial condition. Squads in Belton and Iva were rated to be in fair financial condition.

Only Pendleton Emergency Medical Services was rated to be in good condition. Even though it operated with a $42,000 annual loss, that agency has the most immediate access to the most cash, and also responds to a higher percentage of emergency calls than all of the other small squads, according to the study. Smaller squads often rely on nonemergency, or convalescent, calls for service to help them pay the bills.

The findings in the March report led county officials to seek the latest, deeper review of what is happening within the emergency medical services system. Several of the county squads dispute the findings in the March report.

Even so, the squad chiefs and Medshore are meeting weekly to discuss how they can craft a plan for a unified EMS system, in case that is recommended by the consultant. AnMed Health Medical Center is also part of that conversation. Representatives of AnMed have also confirmed that the hospital’s executive team has reviewed a proposal for what the hospital would need to do to handle the county’s calls for emergency medical services.

Follow Nikie Mayo on Twitter @NikieMayo