Ronan ambulance off and running

Owner and volunteers cite better response times, increased level of care

RONAN — It's been nine months since the Ronan Ambulance Service was bought from the city to be privately operated, and the transition has been positive, say RAS employees and volunteers.

"It's a better atmosphere," said Greg Sheumaker, ambulance service manager, adding that the ambulance service runs more efficiently than it did when it was owned by the city. "We're doing very well."

"It's been great working with Tim [Brester, owner of RAS]," said volunteer Nick Burns, who has been with RAS for 13 years. "I get more free time than I did before and everything still gets covered."

By all accounts, it would seem problems that plagued the volunteers have been amended since the city sold RAS to Brester, who is also the owner of the Polson Ambulance Service.

Prior to Brester's purchase, RAS volunteers cited a myriad of complaints such as being shorthanded and overworked. Last year, when Sheumaker and volunteers approached the city about selling the service, they complained of losing calls to neighboring towns like Polson and St. Ignatius. He told the city council to hire him as a full-time manager or consider selling the operation to Brester.

The discussion lasted months and even prompted a bidding war between Brester and another interested party. In the end, Brester's bid of $156,000 won. That dollar amount was $3,000 less than the competing bid, but it was experience and the backing of the RAS volunteers and other community members that put the ambulance service in his hands.

Brester promised to keep the entire volunteer staff intact and hire Sheumaker as the full-time RAS manager, which he did, and now volunteers say things are running smooth.

One of the best improvements, said Brester, is that RAS has a crew staffed all day, everyday. It's a relief for volunteers to know that there is someone on hand 24 hours a day, Brester explained, saying that volunteers can now enjoy their free time; whereas before "more people were listening [to the scanner] than needed to be, or more people would come down for one call than needed to.

"Now we automatically know one crew is here so they're going to run the first call," said Brester.

And when that crew goes out on a call, "We already have our second crew lined up before we even get two blocks from here. It works out pretty slick," he said. "At times we've even staffed and ran a third ambulance, all on separate calls."

Response times have increased as well, running between two to three minutes on average, he said. Before, without a crew onsite 24/7, volunteers would race from home or work to the ambulance station on Round Butte Road which only prolongs the time it takes to reach a patient.

Also level of care has increased as volunteers have access to higher levels of training, so that volunteers can provide a patient some treatment before he or she gets to the emergency room.

"We can find out what's going on with a patient and treat it, and if we can't treat it we'll at least have a history of what happened so when we get to the emergency department they can start right away," Brester said. "We're constantly upgrading our level of care."

Both the Ronan and Polson stations are well staffed with about 30 volunteers between the two, plus about 15 more in training. The training and experience both ambulance services provide appeal to those pursuing careers in the medical field with many going on to be nurses, doctors, physicians' assistants and nurse practitioners.

"They learn an awful lot about assessment and how to handle a patient and get a lot of real basic knowledge," Brester said.

While none of the volunteers are in it for the money, it doesn't hurt that they are now getting paid by the hour as opposed to by the run. When RAS was owned by the city, volunteers earned $12 a run, which meant if a volunteer put in a shift but isn't called to respond to an emergency, he or she would go without compensation, Brester explained.

These improvements haven't gone unnoticed by the community.

"We sure get a lot of thank-you notes," he said. "I think people have noticed. We have a good group down here. You're in good hands."