Candidate Questions Response Time for EMS Study

At its meeting Wednesday night, the Board of Selectmen will further discuss a proposal to appoint a committee to study the town’s Emergency Medical Services system. The timing of the study generated discussion at the board's last meeting when one resident and political candidate said the idea has lingered for too long.

The committee is charged to look at numerous options for EMS services in town including:

• Cost and impact of having additional incentives for EMS volunteer staff;
• Cost and impact of having a full time non-employee paid EMS staff;
• Cost and impact of having full time paid employee EMS staff;
• Cost and impact of having an outside vendor provide EMS services;
• Cost and impact of having the EMS level of service downgraded; and
• Cost and impact of making no changes to the current EMS program
• Cost and impact of regionalizing EMS services

Chief administrative officer Robert Skinner said the committee would be charged with looking at the advantages, disadvantages and costs of each option or combination of ideas and come forward with recommendations.

“We want the committee to look at all the options and come back with proposals for the board,” Skinner said.

Currently EMS services in town are provided through a combination of volunteers and a vendor. While EMS is part of the town of Canton Volunteer Fire and EMS Department, Vintech Management Services of Torrington is paid to provide extra coverage on weekdays.

The town has budgeted $142,000 for the Vintech coverage, which is generally used from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. In recent months, the company has sometimes needed to cover extra shifts, including some on weekends, Skinner said.

At the end of September, with the loss of some personnel over the summer and other changes, fire officials came to him with a proposal to have Vintech cover daytime weekend shifts for 90 days while some new volunteers were brought on board, Skinner said.

The Canton department is 100 percent volunteer so resource levels are always changing, fire officials said. Currently there 20 active/part time members of the EMS Division of the Department, which includes volunteers who are both EMTs and EMT/firefighters, and five individuals who are in the application process to join, fire officials said.

Although there are some additional resources on the way, he and fire officials agreed it’s a good time to go forward with the study, Skinner said.

At its last meeting the Board of Selectmen discussed issues surrounding the potential committee.

Bruce Lockwood, who has many years' experience in the fire and EMS services and homeland security, said he felt the charge to the committee was about “98 percent” there.

However, he said many professionals could make recommendations based on the options alone. He said it needs to be very clear that the committee look at exactly where Canton is falling short and make sure any recommendations are tailored for the town.  

“I think the study committee needs to look at the data to see where the gaps are,” he said.

Some selectmen also addressed statements made during the public portion of the meeting.

Lowell Humphrey, a first selectman candidate and fire police volunteer, accused the town of ignoring the problem for too long.

He said earlier in the year he noticed the problem of increased mutual aid and other issues, especially on weekends.

“I began to notice it was a problem on weekends during the day,” Humphrey said.

Humphrey said an e-mail he sent to Skinner in April was answered promptly with a promise to monitor the situation.

But Humphrey said he kept checking agendas and minutes and was surprised it was not there.

At the end of September, Humphrey said, he e-mailed again after hearing five ‘missed’ calls in one day.

After a response about the situation from Skinner, Humphrey said he felt the issue was largely ignored and said at one point he became “blunt” about the issue with Skinner.

“I basically was very blunt and said I can’t believe that you as CEO are leaving your office on Friday afternoon without knowing that a core service that this town provides — whether or not it’s staffed, whether or not it’s going to be able to respond, whether or not it is covered by volunteers or a paid vendor,” he said.

Later in the meeting Skinner said he did in fact talk to fire officials in the spring and the consensus was that Canton was no worse off than other area towns.

The department scheduled weekend shifts and Vintech was called in when coverage lacked, Skinner said.

“There were steps taken to cover those gaps,” Skinner said.

The town sometimes relied on mutual aid but in many cases that occurred when a Canton ambulance was providing aid to another town, Skinner said.

And he said the issue had been discussed with the board several times and reiterated that it is time for a study.

“Have we reached the level that we should take a look at it? Absolutely,” Skinner said.

Some selectmen took issue with Humphrey’s comments.

Selectman Steve Roberto said the board had discussed the matter several times when Humphrey had left the meetings.

First Selectman Richard Barlow agreed with Humphrey about the professionalism of volunteers but took issue with his comments about Skinner.

He said he knew of no effort to challenge Humphrey’s staffing arrangements during his years as police chief.

“I think that’s a little bit of a slap at Bob and also a slap at the department heads that are accountable and do an outstanding job as far as I’m concerned,” Barlow said.

Selectman Marc Cerniglia, however, said the town should be looking more carefully at the data — including how many calls come in and how many were handled by Vintech.

Lockwood and Fire Chief Richard Hutchings said it’s very easy to look at the times and know who responded.

“We know when they’re scheduled,” Hutchings said. “We just look at the times and we know when we have paid staff on and when we have Vintech.”

Cerniglia said the numbers should receive more attention at Town Hall.

“I think out of fairness to Mr. Humphrey . . . We should have at least enough respect to look internally and see what we’re doing to manage this,” Cerniglia said.

The Committee would be charged with submitting a preliminary report within eight months of its first meeting. 

Needed are (all must be electors):

• (2) Active EMS members
• (2) Active Fire Dept. members
• (1) Police Department/Dispatch member
• (4) Residents at large — two of which must be familiar with emergency services

An application for volunteers can be found on the Town Web Page at www.townofcantonct.org under "Documents.” Volunteers can write "EMS Study Committee" under the list of Boards and Commissions listed on the form. Please include any relevant experience you may have had with emergency medical services.

Skinner said he anticipates the members will be appointed at the board's Nov. 9 meeting.

The board will also discuss the issue at its Oct. 26 meeting, which will take place at 7 p.m. at the community center, conference room F.