Rural ambulance crews are running out of money and volunteers The fallout could be unanswered 911 calls kcra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kcra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Both Cody residents charged with first-degree murder in the death of Paisleigh Williams pleaded "not guilty" in a case where the verdict is life or death.
The COVID-19 crisis sped these issues to a breaking point, Sypherd said. Funding dropped out as lower tax revenues combined with fewer reimbursable ambulance trips as EMT s were encouraged to treat patients at home rather than taking them to hospitals.
Sypherd said one way to reduce costs is by restructuring to make services regional rather than every town having an EMS. This would result in cost savings because many positions could be consolidated into one and infrastructure could be used to cover a wider range. You have economy of scale for purchasing power within hospitals, you having a deeper staffing pool, Sypherd said.
Green River Star -
April 29, 2021
The historic revenue crisis facing Wyoming’s state, county and municipal governments is threatening to claim yet another casualty: universally available ambulance service.
The state-wide problem is perhaps most acute in Fremont County, where a five-year-old cost-saving plan has unraveled, leaving the nearly Vermont-sized region without a single outfit interested in providing service beyond June.
Amid an economic downturn and significant budget cuts, Fremont County Commissioners opted to privatize the county’s ambulance service in March 2016.
The cost of the county-run ambulance service had been rising, resulting in a $1.2 million budget request. The county’s assessed tax base dropped 27% that year.
Rural Ambulance Crews Have Run Out of Money and Volunteers
Strained by pandemic-era budget cuts, stress and a lack of revenue, at least 10 ambulance companies in Wyoming are in danger of shuttering some imminently.
Stephanie Bartlett, left, and Cheryl Rixey pulling out a stretcher at a hospital in Sweetwater County, Wyo., for a patient transfer this month.Credit.Kim Raff for The New York Times
April 25, 2021, 11:15 a.m. ET
WORLAND, Wyo. For three years, Luke Sypherd has run the small volunteer ambulance crew that services Washakie County, Wyo., caring for the county’s 7,800 residents and, when necessary, transporting them 162 miles north to the nearest major trauma center, in Billings, Mont.