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Escambia Commission Delays Hiring Company For EMS Staff Training
June 21, 2019
Escambia County will delay a decision on new EMS training until after the new county administrator is in place.
Last month, Escambia County Medical Director Dr. Rayme Edler asked the Escambia County Commission for an expedited purchase of training services for EMS hands-on training.
After advertising for training services, the county only receive two bids.
One proposal was from The Rescue Company 1, LLC, in the amount of $144,696.91, and the other from Emergency Educational Training Institute, Inc., in the amount of $243,250. Rescue 1 is not on the Florida Department of Health list of continuing education providers, but Emergency Educational Training Institute is an approved continuing education provider.
Citing that reason and other concerns, Commissioner Jeff Bergosh made a motion Thursday to hire Emergency Educational Training Institute, but that motion failed due to a lack of a second from another commissioner.
Commissioner Steven Barry said he would support the training if it’s supported by new County Administrator Janice Gilley after she starts work for the county on July 1.
“If Janice comes back and she brings it forward, I am going to support this. I want to be on the record saying I am going to support it. I just don’t think it is a rush procurement right now,” Commissioner Lumon May said.
The Florida Department of Health is currently investigating allegations involving the possible falsification of training certificates by Escambia EMS and Public Safety. The county commission has hired attorney Ann Bittinger of Jacksonville, who specializes in health care law, to represent five county employees in the Florida DOH investigation.
“….We’re going to spend a ton of money defending employees internally,” Commissioner Lumon May said Thursday. “Inside an organization, where else in America would you have a supervisor reprimanding their employees, and you’ve got to go to Jacksonville and hire outside counsel? I mean there’s something wrong. Fundamentally, the training is not going to fix that. You keep piling turds on top of turds, you’re going to continue to get turds. You’ve got to at some point straighten it all out.”
He said he would not be bullied into hiring a company to conduct EMS training and EMS will continue to operate.
“We’re not going to shut down. It was too me, it was the most horrific thing and propaganda to give to the citizens of Escambia County that our people are not qualified. They are well qualified,” May said. “They are saving lives every single day without this training.”
“I’m going to put you on the spot. Do we need this? Is this a must have?” Bergosh asked interim Public Safety Director John Dosh.
“Based upon the information I’ve been provided by the medical director, she would like to see this enhanced training,” Dosh said. “I’m not a doctor, so I can’t answer that question for you.”
Comments
11 Responses to “Escambia Commission Delays Hiring Company For EMS Staff Training”
Its pretty obvious why the County is hiring an outside law firm to defend these employees. The County’s legal team knows that these employees are innocent to the degree this prima Donna has accused them of. They know if they leave them in the wind the County will suffer much more from liable law suits. If Alonso or HR thought any of it was true they’d be fired already. Ask any employees that was terminated with any pending changes such as domestic violence, assault etc.
Lumon is right this woman is going to cost the county a lot
If you know one training company will behired, why hire lawyers? Full employment for lawyers act so Commissioner ddoesnt look weak and indecisive?
The county wouldn’t have hired an attorney at this stage in the investigation if there wasn’t a need to defend something. Obviously there’s something to dr elders claims. EMS leadership would be wise to retain their own attorneys
No matter what Barry will vote with May…..
So Barry wants to NOT decide so he can pass the hot potato expense off to an unelected County Administrator…very swampish
@ Support the BOCC, Dr. Edler is no prima donna, she wants what is best for the county and EMS. Trust me once all this is resolved and training is done, our EMS will be better then it already is. EMS in this area is one of the best I have every worked with.
@ SW, farming out EMS is not the answer, just look at Santa Rosa County. Private EMS is only about money and not service.
Now we know where Century gets its example on how to run things from. SMH at BOCC
How eloquent of the Chairman.
Let me get this straight. We hired Dr. Elder as our chief medical examiner. Dr Elder tells the commission that the training is sub par for first responders among other internal issues. Dr Elder recommends an urgent need for training. We have the commission chair using turd piles as his analogy. We cant decide to support training at the cost of 250k for critical first responders. This same commission voted to write off 6 million dollars of outstanding EMS bills due to a software glitch last year. Considering the software glitch still exist I expect there will be another write off?
We have 5 guys without dr in front of their name making medical decisions
Maybe the BOCC should get out of the EMS business and farm it out?
The Medical director acted like a prima donna, coercing them to sign an against medical advice form if they didn’t immediately get this enhanced (above and beyond) training. She filed official reports on her own employees with the DOH and now the county has to get lawyers to defend them at taxpayer expense. As an Emergency room MD she might do well but as a real person in a real life situation in government position she seems to be a troublemaker.
The fire chief (Nail) pushing this training, which btw was not even accredited is gone.
It looks like Weaver is owed an apology as well as Lavoy and any who spoke against them must be unable to discern the difference between truth and fiction.
Who ever leaked the crazy making investigation letter to the press is a CAD. I think I know who did it, Clue– who breathlessly jumped up in down in front of the TV cameras?
Nice the one who calls everyone derogatory names wasn’t there for a change.