Ambulance Advisory Committee

AMBULANCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE EMERGENCY MEETING NOTES January 18, 2013 2:30 PM Meeting held at: Division of Public Health & Community Services 18 Mulberry Street Nashua, NH 03060 An Emergency Meeting of the Ambulance Advisory Committee was held on January 18, 2013 at the Division of Public Health and Community Services. No posting occurred. AAC Members/Designees Present: Kerran Vigroux, Director of Public Health & Community Services Steve Galipeau, Assistant Chief-Nashua Fire Department Justin Kates, City of Nashua, Emergency Management Director Jeff Bukunt, Captain-Nashua Police Department Fran Dupuis, St Joseph Hospital Scott Cote, Southern NH Medical Center AMR Representatives: Bill Sanger, CEO, EMS+, American Medical Response Christopher Stawasz, AMR Operations Manager Tom MacKenzie, AMR Purpose of the meeting: Kerran Vigroux received a call on Thursday, January 17, 2013 late in the afternoon from Chris Stawasz announcing his resignation from AMR. Chris notified Kerran that the President and CEO of AMR would be flying into New Hampshire the following day and would like to meet with her. As the Mayor was out of town, Kerran sent an e-mail to the Ambulance Advisory Committee members at 5:19 pm to announce Mr. Stawasz’ resignation as well as asking if any of the members would be available to join her for the meeting with AMR’s CEO. Meeting Notes: All members actually attended the meeting or sent a designee if they were unable to attend. Mr. Sanger began the meeting by announcing that there had been internal issues with their Northeast Division’s management of the company and that he was there to assure the City that issues were now being addressed and that the company was committed to serving the City of Nashua. Internal issues were not service related, but at the level of regional management and decisions that had been made around middle management positions and down-sizing. Mr. Sanger reiterated that he had not been aware of the changes that middle management was making, that he did not support the decisions that led to those changes, and that he was making it his personal responsibility to rectify the situation. Mr. Sanger also made it clear that one of his goals in visiting New Hampshire that day was to work to convince Chris Stawasz to remain with the company and that he was invested in addressing Chris’ concerns about how the company was being managed locally. The committee addressed concern over recent closures of AMR operations in some Massachusetts communities. Mr. Sanger stated that there will be no more closures, that he did not support that type of business model, and that AMR would be reinstating staff that had been eliminated. The committee addressed concerns over billing and balance billing practices. Mr. Sanger assured the group that he was committed to finalizing an agreement with Anthem so that these billing issues would be resolved. Mr. Sanger promised that the billing issue with Anthem would be settled within 30 days. Chief Galipeau informed Mr. Sanger of the interruption in the Nashua Fire training schedule and his subsequent concerns over whether Fire Department personnel would receive the required re- certifications before the March deadline. Although outside of the scope of the contract with the City, hospital representatives expressed concern over patient transports between medical facilities. There were both response time concerns as well as billing concerns. Mr. Sanger promised to follow up with the hospital representative on Monday morning. The committee shared their concern over Mr. Stawasz’s resignation as he has been engaged in Nashua’s EMS system for over 30 years. Ms. Vigroux stated that Mr. Stawasz has been instrumental is assisting with customer calls regarding billing and care. The AMR representatives left the meeting at 3:30 pm and Ms. Vigroux asked that the committee members remain for further discussion. The members discussed the current contract terms and expiration dates, including the pros and cons of exercising the annual renewal option. The committee members expressed concern over the stability of the Nashua operations should Mr. Stawasz continue with his plans to resign. Further discussion included concern over the training schedule for Nashua Fire and the Committee’s concern over whether the billing issues could be resolved in the promised 30 day timeframe. The members agreed that Ms. Vigroux should update the Mayor upon her return to Nashua to determine appropriate next steps. Meeting adjourned at 3:45 pm.