Mahoney places 16 th
in the nation
50¢
VOL. 141
NO. 30
8 Pages
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Boardman Fire is ‘call jumping’, say
health district officials
on against county commis-
sioners Melissa Lindsay
tocols by “call jumping” and Jim Doherty. Both have
and essentially showing refused to move forward
up to every EMS call and and grant Boardman a li-
trying to take matters into cense with the third com-
his own hands. As you missioner, Don Russell
might expect, this is not being in favor.
only illegal, but un-
Hughes went
necessary and a safety
as far as to attend
risk,” she said. “There
an initial public re-
is no need for both
call meeting held
EMS ambulances and
earlier in Heppner,
the fire department to
where he spoke to
show up to every call,
the crowd about his
nor is there a need for
disagreements with
the fire department to Health
the commissioners.
spend public funds District CEO Although his rea-
Emily
on an ambulance ser- Reynolds
sons are not stated
vice when one already Roberts
on the recall peti-
exists instead of fire
tions, he and mem-
department resources. If bers of the fire district were
they focus on their job and at the meeting picking up
we focus on ours, then the signature petitions to take
public wins,” she added.
back to Boardman.
Previously responsible
The ambulance dis-
for just fighting fires and pute began to heat up in
responding to motor ve- March of this year when
hicle accidents with their Hughes came to an EMS
fire trucks, Boardman Fire Advisory Committee (the
will need a county license board which oversees am-
to operate ambulances. bulance service in the coun-
So far, no license has not ty) requesting the county’s
been granted, so EMTs are Ambulance Service Area
responding to emergency (ASA) plan be changed to
medical calls with their allow Boardman Fire to
fire trucks. When done in be dispatched to all emer-
conjunction with already gencies, not just fire and
dispatched health district vehicle accidents.
ambulances this has drawn
In April the adviso-
charges of “call jumping” ry board rejected Hughes
from the health district.
request saying call jump-
The county commis- ing results in “risks to the
sioners are ultimately re- public and patients that do
sponsible for issuing an not outweigh the benefit of
operating license in the that action.” As examples
county, and Hughes has they listed: traffic risks
attended several commis- to the public for multiple
sioner meetings requesting providers coming in “hot”
that action. So far commis- to a scene in an effort to be
sioners have not complied first on the scene; conflicts
and now both sides have and disputes between care
hired lawyers in the dispute. providers on scene; slow-
The disagreement has ing delivery of care given;
also spilled over into the having multiple opposing
current recall effort going treatment protocols in place
EMS dispute continues
Blane Mahoney ended
his high school steer wres-
tling career placing 16 th in
the nation at the National
High School Rodeo finals
in Gillette, WY that ended
on Saturday, July 23.
Blane clocked a 5.16
second run on his first round
steer, placing 14 th out of 150
competing steer wrestlers.
He came back in the second
round and recorded a 5.01
second run to place 10 th in
the round. His combined
aggregate time of 10.17, put
him in the second place high
call-back position heading
into the top 20 short round
held on Saturday night. The
short round left Mahoney
finishing 16 th in the nation.
“I wish that I could
have drawn a better steer
in the final round, but I am
grateful for the experience
and to be able to compete at
the highest level,” Mahoney
told the Gazette.
Blane will continue his
rodeo career this fall under
the Timberwolves flag at
Blue Mountain Community
College in Pendleton.
week’s Gazette-Times the
health district says it has
“made many attempts to re-
solve this issue and develop
a partnership with BFRD
to enhance EMS services.
Those attempts have not
been successful. At this
point, due to the continued
public safety risk, MCHD is
following the legal process
outlined in the ASA Plan
as we constructively work
toward a reasonable, com-
munity-based resolution.”
“Boardman Fire Rescue
District is very good at what
they do, and we are beyond
grateful for their firefight-
ing services. MCHD’s EMS
first responders are also
very skilled at what they
do and have been saving
lives in our communities
for 27 years. Changing
the way emergency med-
ical services are deployed
in Morrow County does
not make sense. Not when
there is already a system in
place that is safe, effective,
efficient and proven to save
lives,” the letter says.
The district said if
Boardman Fire does not
comply and stop attending
medical emergency calls
the dispute could, according
to the ASA plan, end up in
circuit court.
Text-to-911 now
available in Morrow
County
The Morrow County
Sheriff’s Office 9-1-1 Com-
munications Center is now
equipped to receive and
respond to mobile phone
SMS Text to 9-1-1 messag-
es. This service is available
for use by the deaf, hard of
hearing, or speech impaired
and in situations where it
is too dangerous to make a
voice call to 9-1-1.
While calling 9-1-1
during an emergency is
still the preferred way to
ask for help, residents and
visitors to the county are
encouraged to “Call if you
can, text if you can’t.”
For more information
visit: https://www.co.mor-
row.or.us/sheriff/page/text-
911.
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Boardman Fire & Rescue Chief Michael Hughes speaks to
the crowd at a July 11 meeting in Heppner held to launch a
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Boardman Fire and
Rescue has been practicing
what is known in the emer-
gency medical business as
“call jumping” or respond-
ing to emergency calls in
the Boardman and Irrigon
area where health district
ambulances have already
been dispatched, a practice
that is not only illegal but
also “unnecessary and a
safety risk,” says a Morrow
County Health District of-
ficial. Call jumping is only
one of the many reasons
the district has decided to
move forward with its ef-
fort to stop 911Emergency
Medical Service (EMS) dis-
patching from the sheriff’s
office to Boardman Fire.
The allegations are
part of an ongoing dispute
between Boardman Fire
and the health district over
who responds to emergen-
cy medical calls in north
Morrow County. The health
district has, for 27 years,
provided emergency medi-
cal service (EMS) there and
has ambulances stationed
in both Boardman and Irri-
gon. However, Boardman
Fire Chief Michael Hughes
recently acquired three am-
bulances, and now wants to
license them and provide
EMS services in the area,
which he says will give
citizens added medical pro-
tection and safety. Health
district officials disagree,
and this week requested the
county sheriff 911 dispatch
center stop sending EMS
calls to Boardman Fire.
Fire trucks have been used
to respond to the medical
emergency calls but are
not transporting patients.
The request does not af-
fect dispatching Boardman
Fire to fires, motor vehicle
accidents or for 911 calls
to the Boardman Police
Department.
“The Boardman Fire
and Rescue District are re-
sponsible for fighting fires
and responding to motor
vehicle accidents. That’s
their job and they’re great at
it,” Morrow County Health
District CEO Emily Roberts
said in a statement released
last week. The district also
released an open letter to
the public explaining their
side of the disagreement
(see page 3).
Roberts went on to
say, “The Morrow County
Health District (MCHD)
provides EMS ambulance
service and has been saving
lives in Morrow County for
27 years. That’s our job.
The chief of the Boardman
Fire and Rescue District
(Michael Hughes) has been
ignoring the county’s pro-
with patients; splitting re-
sources that waste time and
money and resulting delays
in transport. Health district
officials have described
this as “more is not always
better” in EMS care.
The denial of Hughes
request to change the ASA
plan and allow for Board-
man Fire to be dispatched
did not stop the sheriff
911 from continuing to
dispatch, and the practice
has continued to the present
time. So, at a July 18 meet-
ing the advisory committee
voted to inform the sheriff’s
office it has been “operating
outside the guidelines” for
how 911 calls are to be
handled in Morrow County.
“Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Office has ignored the
MCHD determination and
continued following its
new practice of dispatching
Boardman Rural Fire in ad-
dition to the health district
ambulance service to all
medical calls of any kind,”
the letter sent July 25 said.
In a separate letter, also
sent July 26 to Boardman
Fire, the health district used
even stronger language
about call jumping activities
saying Boardman Fire was:
1) Operating emergency
vehicles at unsafe speeds
in an effort to race MCHD
ambulances to non-emer-
gency medical calls; (2)
Obstructing access of
MCHD ambulance vehi-
cles and personnel at emer-
gency and non-emergency
medical scenes; (3) Mak-
ing unprofessional and
derogatory statements to
patients and in the commu-
nity relating to MCHD am-
bulance personnel medical
care; (4) Violating patient
confidentiality by making
comments about specific
calls when no longer on
scene and rendering care;
(5) Continuing to insist
that the Morrow County
Sheriff’s Office dispatch the
BFRD to all medical calls,
despite the determination
made by the MCHD and
EMS Advisory Committee
that this procedure is un-
safe; and (6) Continuing to
ignore and violate the ASA
Plan and determination
made by the MCHD and
EMS Advisory Committee
that this new dispatch pro-
cedure is unsafe by contin-
ually responding to all calls,
including nonemergency
calls, resulting in the vio-
lations.”
In their letter to the
public published in this
Blane Mahoney (right) with his father, Mike Mahoney, as his
hazer at a recent event. -Photo by Fast Shootin Photography.
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