CHISHOLM—The City of Chisholm ambulance learned last week that the Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board (EMSRB) has approved its application for a Part-Time Advanced Life Support license.
Chisholm Ambulance Director Tiffany Larson, in an email on Thursday, said the ambulance can now operate with the part-time ALS license on top of the Basic Life Support (BLS) license it has always had.
“Now when we have one of our five already employed paramedics scheduled, we can operate at an advanced level,” she said.
Now that the city has been granted part-time ALS status by the EMSRB, the ambulance when operating at the advanced level will have the same protocol as the Hibbing and Virginia ambulance services, according to Larson. The upgrade will also help reduce wait times when there are multiple patients waiting for transfers, she said.
Larson said this has added the skills the ambulance is able to do when the paramedics are scheduled, including different ways of accessing the venous system, and emergency airways.
“...it gives us a lot more options and ways to care for the patient at a much higher level of care,” Larson said.
There are 35 additional medications the Chisholm Ambulance Service is allowed to use when operating as ALS in addition to the six it carries as a BLS ambulance, she noted.
“The medications include things to help in situations involving respiratory, pain control, blood pressure, cardiac, diabetic among others,” Larson explained. “We are able to go a lot farther down the path of care then we were before. With having such a rural service area, I feel this is very valuable to the community.”
Chisholm Ambulance serves a 420 square mile area, including the City of Chisholm, and surrounding rural areas.
For a little more than two years now, the city has been operating the ambulance service as city-run basic life support ambulance service. The service had previously been operated for a 30 year period as a hybrid service through a contract between the city and a private ambulance provider, Longyear, Inc.
Including Larson and there are five paramedics, 10 Emergency Medical Technicians, and five Emergency Medical Responders on the Chisholm Ambulance Service roster.
“We do not have a hard cap on our roster for a number and are always open to accepting applications,” Larson said.
Keeping the city-run operation is “a delicate balance,” she said. She credits a “very dedicated staff” for keeping the service afloat in the transition from private ownership to a city-run operation.
Like other ambulance services across the state and nation, the Chisholm Ambulance Service is dealing with a gap in reimbursements, according to Larson.
The ambulance service is currently based out of a building next to Chisholm City Hall, and once the new public safety building is complete will be under the same roof as the Chisholm Police Department and Chisholm Fire Department. The new building is anticipated to be completed in June, according to Chisholm City Administrator Stephanie Skraba.
A new ambulance is also on order for the ambulance service and is anticipated to arrive sometime this fall, Larson said.
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