EMS situation in Lac du Flambeau discussed at town board meeting

The issue of the number of runs made to Lac du Flambeau by ambulances and crews with Oneida County’s emergency medical service (EMS) came up at the Feb. 7 meeting of the Lac du Flambeau town board.

The town’s EMS director, Mike Zimmerman, gave the board the monthly fire department and EMS report for the month of January 2024, noting that the town’s volunteer ambulance crews made 65 runs. Lac du Flambeau resident Jim Somerfeldt asked Zimmerman if he knew how many runs Oneida County ambulances, primarily Med 5 based at Howard Young Medical Center in Woodruff, are “making out here?”

“I do not,” Zimmerman said. “Not off the top of my head.”

Town clerk Sue Schoonover said she wasn’t sure if that information could be obtained through LifeQuest, an EMS billing service the town was using before it went into annual contracts with Oneida County for 2023 and 2024. 

For 2024, the contract the town has with Oneida County to provide ambulance service is a little more than $290,000.

“We don’t receive any reporting from them (LifeQuest) at all,” Schoonover said. 

For clarification purposes, Somerfeldt asked who it was that bills for the Oneida County EMS when Med 5 makes a run to Lac du Flambeau. 

“They do,” town chairman Matt Gaulke said, referencing Oneida County.

“Plus their cut,” Somerfeldt said. 

“That’s the problem,” Zimmerman told him. 

“Nice for them,” town supervisor Bob Hanson said. 

Hanson has been a vocal critic of the amount the town of Lac du Flambeau is charged for ambulance service by Oneida County. 

“We’re pretty well stuck with it,” Hanson said. 

Zimmerman said it’s been a topic at recent meetings of the town’s EMS personnel; he said he’s tried to get the message across that the more runs Lac du Flambeau ambulance personnel can make, the more he can use that as a negotiating tool to reduce the annual contract with Oneida County.

“I can say ‘Well, we don’t really need you guys (Med 5) because we’re covering this,’” he said. “It’s a big push.”

Zimmerman, demonstrating the challenges a volunteer ambulance service such as Lac du Flambeau’s faces, used three calls “in a row” from earlier in the day. 

“One I was able to do and then people had to go back to work,” he said. “I had no crew because everyone’s at work. Med 5 had to come in and another call came in. I had to run around and steal someone from work again. So, it’s difficult but it is what it is. I know we pay them (Oneida County) way too much. I wanna bring that down but the only way I can do that is to show them we don’t need ‘em.”

Zimmerman said the majority of the Lac du Flambeau calls are basic life support (BLS) calls and not advanced life support (ALS) calls that Oneida County’s Med 5 and other ambulances are capable of. 

“They don’t care,” he said. “We have to pay them no matter what.”

Lac du Flambeau resident Don Tingwald asked if it’s known what the number of calls Lac du Flambeau EMS crews don’t make.

“Well, that would be the number of runs Med 5 makes,” Gaulke said. He mentioned there are times a Lac du Flambeau ambulance and crew will be out on a call when another comes in.

“Then you have to call Med 5,” he said. “Or Med 4.” 

Oneida County’s Med 4 is based in Nokomis and is repositioned when Med 5 is called out. On some occasions, Med 4 will get sent to Lac du Flambeau if Med 5 is elsewhere and Lac du Flambeau EMS isn’t able to respond to a call. 

Oneida EMS runs to LdF

Oneida County Sheriff Grady Hartman, who oversees the county’s EMS program, told The Lakeland Times last week Oneida County EMS crews responded to Lac du Flambeau 27 times in January of 2024. The total number of responses for 2023 was 348. 

Hartman, who mentioned the four towns in Vilas County — Manitowish Water, Boulder Junction, Presque Isle and Winchester — that have recently established an EMS district, said he understands the situation with regard to volunteer ambulance services and the challenge faced with regard to more stringent standards for training and the time needed to do the training and become certified. 

“The older people that had been doing it have aged out,” he said. “They’ve lived that life and volunteered ... it’s become a thing of the past, really.”

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].