Tennessee Ambulance Service Association
Meeting Minutes
June 7, 2012
Board Members Present: Brandon Ward, Chad Graham, Chuck Latimer, Derek Merritt, John Fitzsimmons, Dennis Rowe, Andrew Reed, John Combes, Ricky Slack, Lis Henley, and Joyce Noles. Members Present: Joseph Rike and Lynn Thompson – Memphis Fire, Jon Guthrie, Brian Smith, and Whitney Miller – Air Evac, Doug McQuary – Past President and Conference Committee Chairman.
The meeting was held at the Vanderbilt Police Department in Nashville and was called to order by President Ward at 8:45. Minutes from the May 3rd, 2012 meeting were read and approved after a motion by Merritt and second by Henley.
President Ward announced the passing of Jackie Wilkerson last night. Regrets were given to the State EMS office. Jackie served as Assistant EMS Director for the State EMS and as Director of Robertson County EMS for several years. Jackie was also an avid supporter of TASA and served as its President. All board members were urged to attend Jackie’s funeral.
President Ward gave updates on Mike Shankle and Larry Billingsley. President Ward also gave the financial report in our treasurer’s absence. We have $9671.79 in checking at this point. Dues should be going out this month. We have one pending $15,000 payment in July to McMahan Winstead.
President Ward reiterated the committee appointments, which are available on the TASA website with the exception of three: the EMS Board Realignment Committee, Benchmark Committee, and EMS Board Penalty Evaluation Committee. He also announced the priority for today’s all day meeting was to get the conferences setup. Doug McQuary presented everyone with potential speakers; a video was shown from Dr. Dale Henry. There were lengthy discussions and suggestions from everyone present on material for the Mid Winter conference. After about 2-3 hours of discussion on material and speakers, President Ward asked that all conference committee members get together on June 20th after the EMS Board meeting to meet. He also added two members to the Reimbursement Committee in case that Mr. Shankle is unable to head this up as he has the past several years.
Chief White from the Nashville Fire Dept addressed the group and asked for advice or planning guides on staffing for large gatherings. Chief Rike from MFD offered some resources and locations to obtain those. John Combes has some as well and will forward those. FEMA also has a guide.
The rulemaking hearing coming up on June 20th was discussed at length. There have been revisions to the document, but not the specific ones that TASA asked for. The 40 hours of education and 10 hours of peds are still there. Most were opposed to the document because of the large increase of cost for the education component. It will cost the Memphis Fire Department over 13,000 man hours alone. President Ward asked that everyone read the document and to please forward him specific concerns by June 13th so that he can address these with EMS Board members. A motion to oppose the document as a whole was introduced by Andrew Reed and seconded by Dennis Rowe the motion was carried. President Ward will draft a letter and send to each State EMS Board member.
John Fitzsimmons gave the NAEMT report. He stated that he would like to forward his NAEMT information to the Secretary and have it emailed out when he gets it. Because by the time TASA holds its monthly meetings the NAEMT information is already outdated. John also reported on Bob Hawkins funeral and the Star of Life Awards. There was also much discussion that the NAEMT affiliate designated to Tennessee has never been to a TASA meeting. Dennis Rowe is going to find out where the breakdown is.
Ricky Slack advised the Board that he is going to ask for legislation that dispatchers be added to the list of those eligible for E-tags. He asked that when this comes across, TASA support it. President Ward discussed legislation about requiring special identification of electric cars, since they are increasing. There is also a definitive risk of electrocution with these if involved in a crash.
Making EMS an essential service was discussed. It was thought that we should address this to CTAS or the County Mayor’s Association, and we should inform everyone that putting this into law would not cost any new monies. It was also discussed that we should introduce the idea slowly to our legislators. Other issues were discussed but a very large majority of the group felt that this should be our goal the next legislative year. The motion was presented by Fitzsimmons that our Champion goal for the 2012/13 year be introducing EMS as an essential service in Tennessee. President Ward will get with Beth at McMahan Winstead to draft the document.
It was reported that Chris Brooks MD has filled the vacant MD EMS Board position that has been vacant from East TN. According the East TN Reps, he is very familiar with EMS. It was also discussed that we look into teleconferencing instead of driving every month. This will be discussed further at the next meeting as it has been successful for other organizations.
The meeting was adjourned at 13:16