PdC EMS looks to let ambulance license lapse

By Correne Martin

Since 1965, Prairie du Chien EMS has provided services in the Crawford County area. But, due to declining membership, loss of a medical director, a downgraded license and a lack of calls coming in, the organization has come to the point of surrendering its ambulance license altogether.

“We all feel deeply disappointed,” said Joe Morovits, PdC EMS president.

“We worked so hard to keep this business going for the public,” added Jerry Barrette, former 34-year member. “I feel like we were taken for granted. People thought we’d always be here.”

PdC EMS will continue as a nonprofit, though liquidation of the assets is the next step. Remaining funds will be used to support emergency first responders in the area, provide education to the community, and train the public to become first responders, according to Sue Koresh, vice-president. Eight of the current members are certified instructors.

In its prime, the ambulance service had around 40 members on its roster, including numerous couples and generations, and it averaged 500 to 600 calls a year.

“I did it because I was afraid nobody would, but it was also my passion,” Koresh recalled.

PdC EMS was like a big family, Morovits remembered. He said the members’ kids often being with their parents during training sessions, acting as patients, lying on backboards and stretchers. Koresh talked about several times when they’d be volunteering, with their kids again in tow, and a call would come in.

“We’d look around and make sure somebody was watching them, then go on the call. It was like a big family of volunteers with the same desire to help others,” she said.

Barrette noted that each of the volunteers had the same “helper personality,” which was the commonality that made the organization so tight-knit and strong: “We did all of our own extricating. We never turned down a stand-by at ski shows, music festivals, ball games, the Relay For Life. The Rendezvous and trail ride fundraisers made us some money and got us out there in the community.”

The institution began declining in the early 2000s, the members believe, when the state started requiring more than the customary 120 hours of initial training for EMTs to become licensed. Those hours increased to over 160 hours today, plus 40 hours of refresher courses every two years, in order for EMTs to maintain their national registry.

“That’s on top of the time put in when we made calls,” Morovits pointed out.

Due to the jump in training hours, fewer volunteers could find enough time to devote to PdC EMS. Membership was up and down. Also, Koresh said, some of the families worked split shifts and couldn’t leave their kids home alone to respond, while some members worked for businesses that wouldn’t allow them to leave for calls. These problems cut down on the number of members who could respond regularly.

Instead of paying EMTs, and perhaps attracting more members, as some ambulance services chose, PdC EMS decided against that because it would’ve required a raise in rates for calls. That would’ve also meant a raise to tax rates and hard-core collections for customers who didn’t pay their bills.

“We sent three bills and, if they didn’t pay, we never went after people,” Knutson said. “I’d say we didn’t get paid for over 40 percent of our transports. We operated off a lot of donations; this was always a shoestring operation.”

Barrette said, in 2005, PdC EMS’ rates were $300 per “basic sick person” call, plus $25 more outside of the city of Prairie du Chien. For advanced medical services, the rate was more. He also noted that, if EMTs responded to a home and simply stopped someone’s bleeding, but didn’t transport them to the hospital, the organization never billed for that service.

“We probably would’ve had to double our costs to cover paying employees,” he stated. “We were also afraid that people, especially the elderly, might not call 911 if they needed help (if they knew it would cost more).”

In 2011, the organization downgraded its license from 911 to inter-facility transfer. About that time, Dan Kussmaul, a former  PdC EMS member, spawned Interstate EMS, and Gundersen Tri-State came into the community, also providing 911 services. Prior to that, PdC EMS medical director left as well.

With such changes all around them, the non-profit only took a couple calls thereafter.

“The calls just stopped and the income stopped coming in,” Morovits said. Koresh added that they haven’t had a transfer call in well over a year.

Since the entity’s only income came from calls, and donations waned, a large chunk of the EMS funds has been eaten up by expenses from the building (on State and Dunn Streets) and from keeping the inter-facility transfer license and insurances up to date.

“We’re one of the few ambulance services in the state that was basically shut down,” Barrette stated.

“I believe it’s a statutory stigma. People would rather wait 30 minutes to get a paid EMT or paramedic versus wait 20 minutes for a volunteer,” Koresh claimed.

In the past few years, the organization has sold its rescue truck and the Eastman First Responders bought its Jaws of Life, a unit that happened to be the first jaws in the county, Morovits said.

The two ambulances that remain in the PdC EMS bays are only worth about $10,000, as compared to 10 times that new, Koresh said, because they’re not the latest in technology. But Morovits said they will be emptied and sold or donated.

Then, all that will remain will be the building, the instructors offering training for the public and the memories.

“It feels so hard to walk in here knowing we worked so hard for all this,” Barrette said, sitting inside the PdC EMS facility.

In total, four members with 117 years of service sat together facing the reality at which their dear emergency medical service has arrived. The members (Morovits, his wife Arlene, Koresh and Barrette) shed a few tears as demobilizing the entity was discussed.

“The financial institutions were good about helping us. Some estates were donated to us. Pete’s Hamburger Stand and United Way were involved,” Barrette concluded. “We went door-to-door specifically to replace the rigs and the community, in general, was very good to us.”