Paramedics and fire department strike a deal

After two years of negotiations, the Orcas Island Fire Department has reached an interim agreement with its paramedics.

The deal, which was formally approved by fire commissioners on Feb. 18, grants paramedics two cost-of-living pay hikes of 2 percent, one for the year 2003 and the other for 2004. The money owed to the paramedics from the beginning of 2003 through February 2004 will be furnished in one lump sum, which they will receive with their next pay check. The remainder will be to each check the paramedics receive in 2004. The new contract will be in effect until the end of the year.

Otherwise, the paramedics’ conditions of employment will remain largely the same as before. They will continue for the time being to be allowed to hold other jobs while on duty, on the condition that they are in their vehicles and on their way to the scene of the medical crisis within four minutes of receiving a call.

Commissioners agreed to continue employing three paramedics, although it will be a bit of a challenge for the next few weeks. Mike Damoth will be resigning effective next Monday, March 1, and a third position with the department has been vacant since last November.

Both Fire Commission chair Harvey Olsan and paramedic Dave Zoeller reiterated that this is an interim agreement, and that all the issues that were sticking points the past couple years remain unresolved. Among those is the question of whether paramedics can hold another job while on duty. Fire commissioners don’t like the arrangement; paramedics say they want more money if they’re required to be at the fire station, waiting for the phone to ring.

Last year the three paramedics received an average of just over $40,000 a year, well below the amount of money given to their counterparts on San Juan and Lopez islands.

Fire Chief Gary Bennett, who represented the department in the negotiations, agreed that the deal was a temporary fix that will have to be revisited several months from now. But he said both parties understood that the matter needed to be put on the back burner for awhile after two years of negotiations. The deal will allow everyone within the department to focus on other pressing matters, among them the search for a new chief.

“It gives us a chance for everybody to calm down and come back fresh,” he said. Olsan agreed, saying the interim deal represented a decision by the commissioners to “put this off for awhile.”

When negotiations reopen later this year, paramedics may take an entirely different position about their future wage needs and conditions of employment, because two of the three paramedics will be new. “There could be a whole new feeling,” Zoeller admitted.

The fire department recently made what Bennett calls a “temporary hire” of Mike Toscano, who formerly worked as a paramedic for MedFlight. That label will apply while both parties decide if they wish to make the job permanent.

The third position is now being filled by a variety of paramedics working on a daily, or per diem basis. This interim plan is enabling the department to continue providing 24/7 emergency coverage.

The fire department is now conducting interviews with several potential hires, and it hopes to have a full staff of paramedics in place by March 15, Bennett said. “We’re trying to have the right people in here. We need people with experience,” the chief added.

AMBULANCE CALLS WERE WAY UP

The number of ambulance calls virtually doubled, from 20 in January 2003 to 37 during the first month of 2004.

But Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Coordinator Garth Eimers says “it’s too soon to tell” if this represents a trend, or if it is merely a blip on the screen.

Eimers told Orcas Island fire commissioners Feb. 18 that with 24/7 on-island physician coverage no longer available, and with medical control now based in Bellingham, it is possible that more people who formerly called their doctors weekends and in the middle of the night are now dialing 911 for medical help. But Eimers believes that it will take as long as six months before the department will be able to determine if the work load will continue to be way above that of previous years.

Bennett, meanwhile, said the problem isn’t the numbers, it’s that paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians may have to spend more time with patients who need immediate medical care, but aren’t in life and death situations that require them to be flown off-island. Prior to January, patients in this category were taken to the Orcas Island Medical Center, where they were treated by local doctors. “We can’t be a baby sitting service,” the fire chief said.

January ambulance calls

Year ..... Number

2000 ...... 38

2001 ...... 19

2002 ...... 27

2003 ...... 20

2004 ...... 37

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