Emergency Medical Services (EMS)

Planning and Implementation

• The roots of ICSD were formed in Franklin County in 2002-2003 when, under the auspices of the Franklin Community Hospital, the five ambulance services serving the twenty towns and other areas of the County worked together with Kevin McGinnis, a nationally recognized EMS expert and former Maine State EMS Director, to consolidate their struggling EMS services into a shared hospital-based EMS agency . The challenge of balancing each community’s service expectations and budgetary capacity was the central challenge, requiring many consultations within and across communities. From this process a new consolidated EMS system, NorthStar EMS, was born. The system has since been acquired by MaineHealth and is named, Emergency Medical Services|MaineHealth Franklin Hospital.

• Following the consolidation in Franklin County, St George in the mid-coast went through a more formalized ICSD process to address critical issues roiling the volunteer service.  As a result, the town modernized and increased the capabilities of the EMS available,. In this process, the ICSD process was further developed  and subsequently used in Old Town, Union, and Unity to produce consolidated EMS services there.

• Franklin Community Hospital funded the initial work in Franklin County. In  XXXX Representative Chip Curry from Waldo County sponsored legislation secure $300,000 to fund ICSD assessments. These funds, combined with municipal funding, has supported multiple ICSD initiatives, most recently in the Cranberry Isles and soon in Lisbon.

• How it works: Kevin McGinnis is the point of contact for ICSD: (Kevin@mcginnis.ws). There are currently six additional, experienced “guides” available to work with towns interested in engaging in an ICSD process. A key element to the process is to have guides managing the ICSD process who are trusted across the multiple constituencies involved.

• As outlined in an ICSD Manual, ICSD involves a stepwise process that is dependent on extensive interviews and input from multiple constituencies (e.g. EMS administrators and providers, municipal leaders, consumers, providers and payers) to determine their expectations for the level of EMS service and their corresponding budgetary capacity. The key aim of this part of the process is to generate an objective view and understanding of the current EMS system from the many, often conflicting opinions and interests in the community.

• The process also involves the analysis and presentation of data on EMS volume and other metrics and current EMS finances supporting the EMS service.

• The process is designed to collect objective information on EMS operations, trends, and future prospects that allows decisionmakers to decide whether to do nothing or choose among options for different levels of service and costs.