QUINCY — Emergency medical services in Grant County Fire District 3, what they cost and their future in the Quincy area, will be the subject of a study commissioned by the fire district and its EMS partners.  

“We’re in the process of selecting a firm to (conduct) the study,” said GCFD 3 Chief David Durfee. “We’re estimating it’s going to take about four months.” 

The fire district is working with the city of Quincy, the Port of Quincy and Columbia EMS, the private company that provides ambulance services to most of the Quincy Valley.  

“Everybody got on board with us. It’s been a collaborative effort,” Durfee said. 

“We felt like it’s time to review and make sure we’re doing the right thing in regard to payment, the type of and level of service, and maybe enhance what we have going on,” Durfee said. “Definitely the Quincy Valley is changing, Quincy is changing, our fire district is changing. It’s growing rapidly, so we felt like it was a good time to do a complete evaluation.” 

Columbia EMS provides emergency response and ambulance transport for most of the fire district, with Lifeline Ambulance providing services in a small section near Ephrata, Durfee said. The five GCFD 3 career staff members are all EMTs as well as firefighters, and in 2024 the district answered 572 EMS calls, compared to 123 fire calls, according to statistics on the district website. Another 417 calls were classified in the “other” category. 

The city of Quincy and GCFD 3 have contracts with Columbia EMS for ambulance services. With multiple agencies and contracts, Durfee said GCFD 3 officials want to make sure all the parts fit together. 

“The study is going to assess the current system, strengths and areas for improvement. What’s nice is that it’s going to be data-driven and from a third party. After (it’s completed) we can evaluate where we want to move forward. Maybe we’re doing the right thing and we need to enhance what we have going, or we need to think about changing operations. We just don’t know. It’s a proactive measure to hopefully set the pace for long-term growth and sustainability,” Durfee said. 

Wayne Walker, CEO for Lifeline, said a periodic review is something the ambulance company does regularly, given the challenges that come with providing EMS services to more sparsely populated areas.  

“The thing it’s safe to say is, it can be a daunting challenge to provide EMS to small rural districts,” Walker said. “It’s what’s I call the coat of readiness.” 

Emergencies happen when they happen, and responding agencies must have the crew ready even if they get very few calls for service over the course of a day. Walker said that makes staffing very expensive.  

Durfee said the study will look at possible duplication of services. 

“As a fire district, we’ve been providing EMS and that’s 80% of our calls,” Durfee said. “So that’s part of the study.”  

But Lane Ribail, chief of staff for Columbia EMS, said he doesn’t think there’s much overlap – all EMS agencies are busy. 

“We all struggle just to try to keep up,” Ribail said. 

“We can see what our neighbors do, and how they make that work,” Durfee said. “There’s stuff that’s kind of dictated by the state that makes you run the way we run, RCWs that (require) us to provide EMS, (so) we’re taking care of our taxpayers.”  

Quincy and GCFD 3 each have contracts with Columbia EMS, and Durfee said evaluating the contracts will be part of the study. So will an evaluation of what it actually costs to provide the service. 

“It’s going to evaluate the cost of EMS services in relation to surrounding areas and what is being provided and the service level around us,” Durfee said. “Making sure we’re not overpaying for the service or underpaying.” 

Durfee said the consultant will review reimbursement models. 

“(The report) will take a look at reimbursement programs that the state has and make sure that we’re taking advantage of all (revenue opportunities), make sure that we’re saving money and we’re doing what’s best for the taxpayers,” he said. 

“Sustain the service, provide the service that’s required by the community and ultimately, the best for the taxpayer's money,” Durfee added. “How do you put all three of those together and work with the city to provide that service? Because what the city does has a huge impact on us and vice versa, what we choose to do has a huge impact on the city. Because the call volume is not there. We’re averaging about 1,000 calls, 1,200 calls a year, and that’s for fire and EMS. We’re just not that big a department.”  

Durfee said none of the partners knew what the consultants' conclusions would be. 

“I’m interested to see what this report says,” Durfee said. “They could say, ‘You’re doing great, this is what it should be. Here’s a five-year plan, or a 10-year (plan),’ and we’ll go after it. Or it could be totally in left field, and say, ‘You guys need to do this.’ So we’re just kind of all anxious (for) that report.” 

    Grant County Fire District 3 crews and Columbia EMS crews respond to an emergency in 2023. Fire district and other local officials, and Columbia EMS owners, have commissioned a study to evaluate current EMS services and make recommendations for the future.