Purchase of new ambulance approved in special assembly meeting

In a special meeting last Thursday evening, May 28, the borough assembly approved the purchase of a new ambulance. This purchase, according to Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen, is to strengthen a potential weak spot in the city's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It became glaringly apparent, recently, that a huge gap in our local medical capacity is an ambulance," she said. "You heard Captain Sprehe speak tonight, now that we have to consider every individual a screen positive because so many folks are asymptomatic, that means we will be even further short on ambulances."

The meeting's agenda packet went into a little more detail of Wrangell's situation. When a 911 call is made for an ambulance, the dispatcher screens patients with a questionnaire about their symptoms. Depending on the answers to these questions, the call is deemed a "positive screen" or a "negative screen." This does not mean that the patient has COVID-19, it only means that they show one or more possible symptoms. Only one ambulance has been used to answer positive screen calls, and several extra safety precautions are put in place. After responding to this positive screen call, the ambulance goes through a thorough cleaning and decontamination process. According to the agenda packet, this can take two-and-a-half to three-and-a half-hours.

However, while the virus has not yet reached Wrangell, there has been an increase in asymptomatic cases elsewhere. This prompted the decision by EMS to treat all future calls as positive screens. This only adds to recent evidence that in a major emergency situation during this pandemic, EMS could be stretched quite thin.

"One specific event which took place on Sunday, May 17, 2020 also made this need apparent," the agenda packet reads. "On this afternoon, there were 4 calls all together in a short timeframe ... Should any of the patients this day been determined to be positive for SARS CoV2 (COVID-19), this would have hindered the response substantially, removing ambulances and crews from service."

To help ensure that emergency services can properly and quickly respond to calls, Von Bargen approached the assembly with a proposal to buy a third ambulance: A Ford F-350 from Braun NW. This ambulance would also come with a PowerLoad System and a PowerCot, she said, putting the total price at $205,871. According to the agenda packet, this money will come out of CARES Act funding Wrangell recently received.

There was some discussion amongst the assembly, regarding the costs of transporting the new ambulance to Wrangell, how old the city's other two ambulances were, and other topics. When the vote was called, though, the assembly approved of the purchase. Assembly Member Julie Decker was the only dissenting vote. Fire Chief Tim Buness said, during the meeting, that they expect the ambulance to arrive by the end of June.