Ambulance Staff To Get Raises

Central Emergency Medical Service employees work Friday to treat a motorist injured after the Ford Mustang he was traveling in left the roadway and overturned on Van Asche Drive in Fayetteville.

Central Emergency Medical Service employees work Friday to treat a motorist injured after the Ford Mustang he was traveling in left the roadway and overturned on Van Asche Drive in Fayetteville.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

At A Glance

Budgets

Central Emergency Medical Service budget comparisons for this year and last.

2013 2012

Revenue $9 million $8.73 million

Spending $8.8 million $8.49 million

Profit $163,719 $245,436

Source: Central EMS

— Staff at Central Emergency Medical Services will soon get raises.

The service’s Executive Committee approved the 2013 budget last month. It projects increased revenue mostly from more emergency calls and more expenditures, mostly for employee pay raises.

The ambulance system serves Fayetteville and Washington County south of Main Street in Johnson.

Becky Stewart, chief administrator, said the committee authorized a 3 percent pay increase for all employees based on performance reviews done by the end of the year.

The service employs about 80, including 65 working in ambulances and the rest in dispatch and administration, she said.

The 2013 budget projects $9 million revenue, or $274,233 more than projections for last year’s revenue. Year-end projections were made in August, Stewart said. The 2012 budget won’t be closed until next week.

Spending in 2013 is estimated to be $8.8 million, or $355,950 more than last year’s. Almost $4 million will be for wages. Employee raises will cost the company $148,199. The executive committee set aside 1 percent of the $4 million for 20 paramedics and technicians below minimum pay ranges set by the Johanson Group and approved by committee members, Stewart said.

Most ambulance crews consist of a paramedic and an emergency medical technician.

The raises are crucial to get pay for paramedics and medical technicians closer to other crews in Northwest Arkansas, said Blair Johanson, salary consultant of the Johanson Group in Fayetteville.

Johanson gave the Executive Committee a study last year showing Central’s pay scales compared to crews from Bentonville and Springdale, salaries from the Arkansas Occupational Employment and Wage Survey and other trade organizations, he said.

The pay averages for local paramedics and technicians are about 15 percent to 17 percent ahead of Central Emergency Medical Services, Johanson said.

The raises will be implemented within the first three months of this year, Stewart said.

The budget projects $259,211 more from patient charges this year because of an expected increase in emergency calls. The authority’s statistics show 3,051 calls for emergencies during the third quarter of 2012. That’s a 7 percent increase, or 195 more calls, more than the second quarter.

“We have an increased call volume on mostly emergency calls. With 2013, we’ll meet those calls with an added ambulance staged in the area of Mission Boulevard and Crossover during the busier call volume and high demand,” Stewart said.

Officials have said since 2011 they are looking for a location for a station in east Fayetteville. The station would improve response times for that side of the city and county, including Elkins and Goshen, Stewart has said.

The crew posted in the area of Mission Boulevard and Crossover is there during peak time of 7 a.m.-7 p.m., Stewart said, until they find a new station.

The ambulance service on Jan. 1, 2009, changed from a nonprofit to a quasi-governmental organization forming the Washington County Regional Ambulance Authority. The communities in the service area own the service through an interlocal agreement. The executive committee, composed of government and hospital representatives, is responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations.