CHAMPAIGN — Carle Arrow Ambulance is now the sole emergency medical services provider in the City of Champaign.
The city approved a five-year agreement with Arrow, a subsidiary of Carle Health, earlier this month. The measure took effect on Nov. 15, the same day Advanced Medical Transport (AMT) ended its ambulance services in Champaign.
Carle Arrow Ambulance Director Justin Stalter said the organization has been responding to 911 calls in the city for decades. He said the agreement would not represent “a paradigm shift” for Champaign residents, noting Arrow has responded to 911 calls multiple times instead of AMT due to AMT’s limited resources.
“With our competitor leaving, we’re very in tune with the city of Champaign and the Champaign Fire Department and what it takes to provide service to that area,” he said.
Under the franchise agreement, Arrow will set aside four ambulances and staff to serve the Champaign. Arrow holds other similar agreements with the Urbana and several other municipalities in East Central Illinois.
But some paramedics with Arrow have said they worry the agency is unprepared to handle all EMS calls in Champaign.
One paramedic who spoke with IPM News requested anonymity out of a fear of retaliation. They said the plan to dedicate four ambulances to Champaign is “woefully insufficient.”
They said the city regularly has five to six 911 calls coming in at a time — and that staff will be stretched too thin to respond quickly.
“The city of Champaign has been underserved in … EMS service for a while, and I have a bad feeling that we’re about to continue to do that and possibly make it worse, because when we go ‘all trucks out’ now, there will not be anybody to back us up.
“The risk here is that we run out of resources, and somebody ends up waiting too long, to the point where they have something irreversible, some irreversible damage done due to their wait time,” the paramedic said.
Stalter said Arrow plans to hire more staff to respond to a potential increase in call volumes. He acknowledged the agency has seen multiple calls stack at once, but he thinks the franchise agreement leaves Champaign better equipped for ambulance responses.
“I would argue that the city has actually, in theory, increased their ambulance coverage with this exclusive agreement than prior, to where ambulances may have been in the area, but not necessarily dedicated to a specific area,” Stalter said.
In a report prepared for the Champaign City Council earlier this month, Champaign Fire Chief Tyler Funk wrote the franchise agreement would guarantee a certain number of resources to the city, enhance communication and better integrate Arrow Ambulance within the Champaign Fire Department.
Funk also acknowledged a potential disadvantage to the agreement.
“By having an exclusive franchise agreement with a sole source provider for EMS delivery, the City’s ability to deliver adequate emergency medical services to its residents are dependent on the stability and long term sustainability of the agency with whom the City enters into a franchise agreement,” Funk wrote.
The anonymous paramedic also expressed concerns that Arrow has an aging truck fleet that faces frequent mechanical issues. When asked about the truck fleet, Stalter said the agency takes fleet maintenance very seriously and has been purchasing new ambulances and has a “robust maintenance program.”
“Fleet is something that we’re constantly trying to turn and make sure that we have adequate and safe resources running calls throughout all of our service areas,” he said. “Fleet is something we take … very seriously.”