No changes to ambulance standby services in county

Although some Nebraska school districts are being asked to pay for ambulance standby services at sporting events, there are no planned changes for local schools.

At Cheyenne County school districts, ambulances are present at home football games as a safety precaution in case of injuries.

Officials from all four school districts within Cheyenne County said the services are provided for free and there’s been no discussion of a charge being implemented.

Sidney School District Activities Director Mike Brockhaus said for home Raider football games, Emergency Response Care provides an ambulance and medics.

“They come to every game,” he said.

There is no fee, and the company is “gracious” to offer the service, Brockhaus added.

At the Potter-Dix, Creek Valley and Leyton school districts, local volunteer fire departments provide the ambulances and personnel.

Mike Williams, in his first year as superintendent at Potter-Dix, said to his knowledge, there’s been no discussion about the Potter Volunteer Fire Department implementing a fee.

Superintendents Ron Howard, at Creek Valley, and Greg Brenner, at Leyton, similarly confirmed ambulances are on site for home football games, at no cost to their districts.

All three superintendents praised their local volunteer fire departments for providing the personnel and resources.

In Eastern Nebraska, however, the Omaha Fire Department is changing its policy of providing local school districts with ambulances at high school football in an effort to focus on more urgent emergency situations.

Beginning in 2016, the fire department will end the free standby ambulance service that it’s offered for the past decade at varsity games and other events.

Omaha Fire Chief Bernie Kanger said he is trying to make the fire department more efficient and needs to prioritize 911 calls over the standby service, he said.

If a district wants to continue having ambulances at games, it will have to enter into a contract with the fire department or with a private ambulance company. Hiring a private company would cost less than a couple hundred of dollars per game, Kanger said, and using the fire department would cost about $180 an hour because its ambulance would be staffed by two off-duty paramedics and would involve overtime.

The policy change will affect the Millard, Omaha, Elkhorn and Westside districts.

The Omaha Fire Department usually receives five or six requests to staff games every Friday, Kanger said. It already has staffed 39 games this year, he said.

When the department receives a 911 call, ambulances on standby at games must leave the stadium unattended, according to Kanger.

“There’s nobody there providing coverage because we’ve left,” he said. “That’s not a good model. And that’s not the model that other cities use.”

Kanger said it’s becoming increasingly difficult to accommodate the rising demand for standby services while keeping up with calls for emergency services.

Calls for emergency services in likely will exceed 49,000 this year, compared to 33,000 calls in 2005, he said.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.