On top of adding career firefighters and a new fire station, the Oak Harbor Fire Department is hoping to beef up its capabilities and save more lives by offering paramedic services rather than emergency medical technicians, or EMTs, only.

Fire Chief Travis Anderson said the department is looking at potentially adding three paramedics to the department’s firefighter and EMT team.

According to Anderson, the department currently offers “basic life support,” which is a series of life-saving procedures, like CPR, to maintain the life functions of a person until they can receive more advanced medical care. These are conducted by an emergency medical technician.

By upgrading to “advanced life support” with paramedics, he said, the department would be able to provide a higher level of care. As opposed to EMTs, who have about 120 hours of training, paramedics have to prepare for about 1,200 to 1,800 hours, a level of education that allows them to conduct more invasive pre-hospital procedures, like administering medication, inserting needles, putting a tube down a patient’s throat, using a defibrillator and more, he said.

The Island County EMS Council, of which the chief is a member, has voted in favor of this plan, Anderson said. The council is made up of representatives from agencies providing emergency medical services on Whidbey and Camano. The proposal will move to the regional council and wait for final approval from the state, he told the Oak Harbor City Council on March 25.

However, he said, there has been some pushback from WhidbeyHealth EMS, which EMS Director Chris Tumblin denied in an interview, explaining he simply wants to have more conversations to better understand the feasibility of the vision of the chief, who he worries is moving a bit fast.

To Anderson, the time to make the change is now. The department can’t start a paramedic service by hiring one person, and the next large hiring isn’t expected to happen for another five or 10 years, he said.

At the meeting, Anderson expressed interest in partnering with the hospital, which he said could help train and orient new paramedics. The two agencies could also share system loads when the demand is high, becoming stronger together.

As the volume of 911 calls continues to grow, people experiencing a medical emergency and local first responders are forced to contend with the limited availability of ambulances, long commutes and hospital wait times and the disadvantages of living on an island, Anderson said.

The department is already poised to hire six new firefighters and complete Fire Station 82 by the end of the year. Three of those firefighters would receive the training to become paramedics, Anderson said, and their extra qualifications are expected to cost the city about $36,000 a year, on top of the pay for a regular firefighter.

Tumblin said he still has some questions about some of the ideas and plans brought up at the meeting. For example, he would like to learn about the department’s plan to cover for paramedics who are unable to come to work and has doubts that the Ground Emergency Medical Transportation program, which offers reimbursements from Medicaid for ambulance transportation, would provide much revenue to support the department’s goal when only a small number of Whidbey patients are on Medicaid.

Anderson claimed that adding paramedics to the department’s engines and potentially adding an ambulance to its fleet of engines would save WhidbeyHealth hundreds of thousands of dollars in staffing and the cost of an ambulance. Plus, it can increase the chances someone gets the help they need when the system is stretched thin. The department can also recall off-duty staff to help when the volume of calls is high, he said.

Tumblin said that if the department’s budget supports the addition of paramedics, he supports the upgrade and said he is also open to discussing Anderson’s idea to use a back-up ambulance from WhidbeyHealth once the hospital acquires two new ambulances. He also said there is particular need for “basic life support” ambulances to keep the “advanced life support” ones in service for the life-threatening situations and would like to discuss that as well.

Mayor Ronnie Wright said the city is working on securing grants for ambulances.

Both the mayor and city council enthusiastically voiced support for Anderson’s proposal.

During the meeting, Anderson recounted how first responders recently had to assist seven patients from six different emergency calls in Oak Harbor, all in 47 minutes. ICOM reported being out of ambulances.

Sometimes, help has to come from as far as Freeland, though Tumblin said this happens rarely as WhidbeyHealth EMS keeps two ambulances stationed in Oak Harbor, two on North Whidbey and sends a paramedic in an SUV to assist patients while waiting for the next available ambulance.

Between 2019 and 2022, Island County had the highest increase in the amount of time an ambulance crew spends waiting for a bed to become available at a hospital, according to a graph from the Washington State Department of Health that was shown at the meeting.