Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, is sponsoring a bill that would make it easier for small communities to provide joint ambulance services, as the 2021 legislative session gets underway in Olympia.
If approved, the proposal could help two small Whitman County towns — Garfield and Farmington — continue operating their combined emergency medical services.
A 2017 state law allows rural ambulance-service providers to overcome personnel shortages by allowing ambulance drivers who don’t have first-aid or medical training to operate emergency vehicles. It inadvertently left out ambulance services shared by two or more municipalities, such as Garfield and Farmington, according to Schoesler.
“This bill would let shared ambulance services continue operations so these communities don’t have to turn to other providers farther away, simply because the driver of the ambulance isn’t trained in first aid,” he said.