PARDEEVILLE - The future of the Pardeeville District Ambulance Service is not about personalities, but patient care, a consultant told the people who filled the ambulance headquarters Wednesday night.

About 35 people attended, including current emergency medical technicians and former EMTs who had quit the ambulance service over what they characterized as procedure-related differences with Director Darlene Wendt.

Many former EMTs said they wanted to return to the ambulance service if changes could be made in the way the service operates.

They had plenty to say as consultant Cathy Etter presented a proposed handbook, and a set of policies and guidelines for the service's operation.

Etter, whom the ambulance board hired earlier this summer, said her purpose is not to solve any personal differences among present and former EMTs.

"This isn't about ‘he said, she said' or ‘I like, I don't like,'" Etter said. "This is about what's best for the patients."

The ambulance district board - which includes representatives from the villages of Pardeeville and Wyocena and the towns of Marcellon, Wyocena, Scott and Springvale - did not adopt any of the draft policies that Etter presented during a two-hour discussion Wednesday.

But policy changes are almost certain, and they're necessary, said ambulance board member Don Catenacci of Wyocena.

If the new policies proposed by Etter (and possibly tweaked by EMTs and the board) are adopted, he said, EMTs would have a mechanism, and a chain of command, by which concerns and disputes could be addressed.

But Heidi Shields, who had resigned as a Pardeeville EMT, said she isn't sure that new policies, by themselves, would solve the ambulance service's problems.

"A huge part of the reason we're here is because of the gossip and petty little grade-school stuff that's gone on," she said.

According to Etter, one of the ambulance service's immediate problems is that it doesn't have enough EMTs.

The current roster lists 17 EMTs, Etter said, although Wendt said the number of active EMTs on the Pardeeville ambulance service is closer to eight.

The service is adequately covered, Etter said, but only because a very few of the rostered EMTs are working the lion's share of the hours in covering calls.

Etter did not specify how many EMTs Pardeeville should have, but she suggested the following guidelines:

-- That each rostered EMT should be scheduled for a minimum of 24 hours per month on call. The hours could be consecutive, or divided into smaller time periods. (The department's current guidelines call for 32 hours per month, but some EMTs are on call for many more hours than that, and some for far less.)

-- That each ambulance call should include at least three responders, two of whom must be certified at the EMT intermediate level.

-- That the ambulance service establish committees, composed of EMTs who have completed a six-month probationary period, to address issues such as scheduling, training and personnel. The committees would be accountable to the board, and would submit regular reports to the board.

-- That EMTs with disputes or grievances talk first to the supervisor of the particular call that the dispute involved, then to the director, then to the personnel committee, then the board.

Etter's proposals also included several other guidelines, including training and age requirements for ambulance drivers, procedures for transporting a patient in police custody and whether the ambulance service should charge for standing by at events such as high-school football games.

Once the policies are adopted, plans call for creating job descriptions for all posts, from ambulance drivers to the director and assistant director, Etter said.

But, although Etter said it was not her intention to propose that all past and current ambulance personnel re-apply for their jobs, board Chairman Joe Rataczak said the board might decide to make all positions, from director on down, open to anyone who wishes to apply for them, and who meets the qualifications.

Wendt, who has been the ambulance service's director since 1989, said she would "definitely" like to continue in the job.

Wendt was silent, however, when the proposed new policies and procedures were discussed, and said she believed some were workable and others not. She declined to be more specific.

At least five former Pardeeville EMTs who attended the meeting said they would be more than willing to return to the ambulance service if changes were made.

"There are a lot of us here who are past EMTs," said Cindy Kuenzlie, "who are eager to come back. If we didn't want to come back, we wouldn't be here. I just want to be able to use my skills."

But Shields said she isn't sure that the current EMTs, who vote on new members, would want the former EMTs back.

Catenacci proposed that until new policies are in place, it should be the ambulance board, and not the EMTs, that decides who is added to the department. He said he planned to make that a formal motion at the board's next public meeting.

For sure, he said, he would tolerate no "bad-mouthing" - namely, the kind of gossip and personal disputes that can cause discord for any small-town volunteer operation.

"I'll give my promise that I would do everything in my power to stop that," he said.

Meanwhile, the board is scheduled to meet in closed session Wednesday with Etter to refine the draft policies before considering whether to adopt them.

Ernie Wolff, a Pardeeville village trustee who is also on the ambulance board, said the key problem to address is ensuring that the ambulance service has enough qualified people to answer calls in a timely manner.

"If we don't get more EMTs, we're not going to have an ambulance service," he said.

Richard Breneman, a town of Marcellon supervisor who was in the audience, added, "Speaking from the perspective of my town, that would tick me off."

ljerde@capitalnewspapers.com

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