By Tatum Todd
oregonlive.com
MULTNOMAH, Ore. 鈥� After nearly three hours of deliberation Thursday, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners rejected a proposal by Commissioner Sharon Meieran, an emergency room doctor,
Her proposal 鈥� which urged County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson to allow an EMT to replace one of the two paramedics the county now requires to try to make up for a paramedic shortage 鈥� came as the county is first proposed the idea five months ago but Vega Pederson blocked it from the commission agenda until this week.
Only one fellow commissioner, Julia Brim-Edwards, voiced support for Meieran鈥檚 idea, which would have temporarily switched the county鈥檚 ambulance service to mixed EMT-paramedic staffing for months while its effects were tracked, including response times and patient outcomes. It takes three votes of the five-member commission to approve a proposal.
Thursday鈥檚 meeting happened against the backdrop of ongoing mediation between Multnomah County and AMR, the county鈥檚 sole ambulance provider, after AMR chronically took too long to respond to calls and the county .
The mediation is supposed to wrap up no later than Wednesday, and commission members or the commission as a whole are slated to be briefed on the deal Thursday. The negotiations are confidential. Commissioners acknowledged Thursday that they know the county鈥檚 and the ambulance company鈥檚 latest proposals 鈥� but they did not hint what they are.
Meieran summoned a panel of experts, including Portland鈥檚 and Gresham鈥檚 fire chiefs and Portland Community Safety Director Mike Myers, and elected local officials to brief the commission. The experts and Portland Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, who until this month oversaw the city鈥檚 emergency response bureaus, provided a united front strongly in favor of Meieren鈥檚 plan.
The fire chiefs, who spared no words in criticizing the lack of immediate changes to the county鈥檚 staffing model.
Portland Fire Chief Ryan Gillespie said that firefighters have had to transport patients to the hospital in the back of fire trucks without seatbelts because no ambulances were available. Gillespie added that he felt emergency service professionals were being cut out of the decision-making process by not having a representative at the county鈥檚 mediation meetings with AMR.
鈥淢eanwhile, this crisis continues and has gone on for far too long, with the short-term solution being proposed by those of us doing the work on the streets,鈥� Gillespie said. 鈥淢ultnomah County鈥檚 inaction and unwillingness to take immediate measures continues to put lives at risk.鈥�
Gresham Fire Chief Scott Lewis also criticized the two-paramedic rule, saying that the healthcare credentials of an ambulance鈥檚 driver have 鈥渮ero impact鈥� on the outcome of a patient being transported to a hospital.
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