County, MHCC strive to find solutions to Glenrock’s ambulance situation, costs

No changes to the Glenrock/Rolling Hills ambulance services will occur in the immediate future, after officials with Converse County, Memorial Hospital of Converse County and the two towns hashed out possible options in a private meeting late last month.
Scheduled by Glenrock Police Chief Colter Felton, the meeting was intended to kick start ideas about what could be done, and the conversations have been ongoing since.
The situation arose when MHCC officials began considering ways to cut expenses for the high-cost ambulance services that has few calls in that area to pay for itself. Meanwhile, reimbursement rates for ambulance calls are going down while costs are increasing, which is costing rural ambulance services money and driving many of them out of business. In Converse County, MHCC took over the ambulance services in Glenrock many years ago at the behest of the Converse County commissioners. MHCC was already operating the Douglas services at the time.
The scenario facing MHCC and Glenrock isn’t unusual in rural health care in recent years, as many ambulance services in smaller communities have folded or curbed services.
While Felton’s understanding after the meeting was that the hospital made verbal commitments that cuts will not be made to the service until July 1, 2024, MHCC Chief Nursing Officer Cristy Cobb was less explicit with an exact date. “We’re not changing anything in the near future.”
Converse County Commissioner Rick Grant explained that the commissioners plan to be financially supportive of finding a more mutually constructive solution to Glenrock’s ambulance services.
“We’re going to go through budget session with the hospital and when we look at all the numbers, the commissioners have agreed that we will more than likely fund any shortfall that the hospital has right now with the ambulance service for a year, to give us the ability to look at other options,” Grant said. “It all comes down to seeing all the numbers.”
“We (provide) funds already to the hospital for the ambulance service; we give them about $500,000 a year. We also buy the ambulances for the hospital . . . most of (the funding) will come out  of the general fund as earmarked for the hospital as we sit down and do our budgets,” he stated.
Glenrock Mayor Bruce Roumell, Glenrock Fire Chief Shon Lindsey, two representatives from Rolling Hills, Grant, Commissioner Mike Colling, and members of MHCC administration were in attendance, according to Felton.
Regardless of minor discrepancies in understanding, the meeting was reported by all sides to have been beneficial.
“I’m very optimistic. I don’t think that the meeting could have gone much better to be honest with you . . . everybody came together really well,” Felton said. “We’ve got a plan to ensure that our services are not cut for 13 months. That’s a win in my book while we continue to explore options.
“It’s not like we’re setting the clock for a year to pull the service – we are going to work. Now we get 12 to 13 months to put our heads together and get something figured out so that there is no loss in service,” he said.
At this point, the various groups involved have not determined their next step. While Felton and the commissioners voiced their desires to maintain a full-time ambulance service in Glenrock,  MHCC is looking to cut costs.
“It’s my assessment that most people want to work together to find solutions that maybe don’t exist today,” Cobb said. “(What) one of our executive team suggested, as we get ready to coordinate a time to meet with the hospital districts’ leaders in Glenrock, is that there might be other solutions that better serve the people of Glenrock because of a lot of the things are not emergent.”
Cobb stressed that if the hospital does not find ways to cut costs, they run the risk of losing  their independence.
“We care about our community. The reason that we are really working hard at trying to find solutions . . . is so that we can retain a county owned hospital – that means that we’re not owned by Banner, we’re not owned by UC Health – that decisions are made locally, with the constituents on the ground, and so at the ground level,” Cobb said.
“When a hospital becomes corporate, those decisions are not made at the local level any longer. That’s our commitment to our community: to really work toward a sustainable future, so (MHCC) can remain independent as a locally owned county hospital.”
Many local political leaders in attendance were appreciative of the hospital’s willingness to discuss solutions. 
“With what the hospital had planned, there were a lot of uncertainties. When the hospital made the decision to go to a full on-call ambulance service, it was done in a way that didn’t involve a lot of people, the community or the people who rely on them,” Grant said. “It needed to happen; in order to make something work, you’ve got to have everyone involved get together.”
After the meeting in May, in a press release to the Douglas Budget and the Glenrock Independent, MHCC Public Relations Specialist Shawna Litzinger provided further clarification on MHCC’s stance.
“There has never been a discussion that included suspending EMS services in Glenrock. Discussions involving the Glenrock EMS have revolved around being able to efficiently provide quality emergency care to the citizens of Glenrock,” Litzinger said.
“As a whole, the issues and challenges of Wyoming’s EMS system have been of great discussion the last few years with the Governor’s Health Care Task Force and the Wyoming Department of Health, Public Health Division, Office of Emergency Services. One of the big issues, and one that Memorial Hospital is currently facing, is being able to operate sustainable emergency medical services with viable funding within rural communities while also dealing with rising health care costs and reduced reimbursements. Because of this issue, Memorial Hospital representatives are talking with Glenrock and Rolling Hills public officials to find a solution that is the best outcome for all entities,” she said.
Members of the various groups were asked to purposefully avoid having a quorum at the meeting, according to Felton. This was done so the meeting could be legally held without being open to the public.
“This was just an initial bringing of all the minds together to identify there’s a problem, see (who is) working on what, who is willing to work on what, and start to come up with some solutions,” Felton said. “By no means is anything being done away from the public. Once we decide on the directions that we’d like to look at going, there might be a public meeting.”
Felton said that although the next meeting has not been scheduled, as things progress additional meetings will be planned.