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SILT, Colorado — A plan to merge a Silt-based ambulance service with the Burning Mountains Fire Protection District hit a substantial snag Monday night when the longtime director of the ambulance service resigned without notice.
Susan Taylor, who has been since 1993 in various capacities with the ambulance service now known as West Care, made the sudden announcement at the Silt Board of Trustees meeting.
The unexpected development means that the ambulance service, which was expected to merge with the fire district on or around July 1, 2010, is now without a director, since Taylor's resignation was effective immediately.
And the expected “transition” of 911 emergency medical service from West Care to the fire district may now have to take place earlier than expected, to overcome what Burning Mountains Fire Chief Brit McLin called a “leadership void.”
The merger of the 911 service has been in the works for some time.
The West Care service operated as an “enterprise fund” under Silt's municipal umbrella, meaning it paid its own way with fees for service, serving essentially the same area as the fire district.
Silt officials worried that, due to a variety of factors, the service might become a liability problem for town taxpayers, either directly through a need for rising financial subsidies or indirectly through insurance claims.
As the deal to hand off the 911 service to Burning Mountains progressed, Taylor made it known that she planned to go to work for another regional ambulance service based in Montrose, called Transcare. Transcare is involved in separate negotiations to take over from West Care the job of transporting patients between hospitals and other medical facilities, which is distinct from the 911 function.
But in her announcement, Taylor accused Silt's town administrator, Betsy Suerth, of having “censored” Taylor's efforts to talk directly to members of the Silt Board of Trustees and the fire district.
She also accused Suerth of resorting to “intimidation” to force Taylor to prevent her ambulance employees from speaking directly to the same officials, in an apparent attempt to affect the terms of the merger.
Taylor said that at one time, after two ambulance workers addressed a meeting about the merger in New Castle, Suerth told her “I needed to control my staff better, [or] I would be fired.”
Taylor's claims were supported by several West Care employees, and she said she was resigning because “I can no longer tolerate ... the abusive administrative tactics or the hostile work environment” that she claimed Suerth had created for her.
Silt Mayor Dave Moore, as well as town attorney Eugene Duran, said they learned of Taylor's decision last week, and Duran indicated that he and Suerth had been scrambling to find ways to work around Taylor's departure.
“The leadership of West Care is, in effect, defecting to Transcare,” Duran declared at one point.
Moore, in an apparent effort to cool the tempers in the room, read a letter lauding Taylor's work and calling her “revered ... respected and loved” as the shepherd of “an incredible ambulance service.”
Silt officials declined to discuss Taylor's allegations against Suerth.
Officials from Silt and the fire district pledged to rearrange the merger in a “seamless transition” that would not endanger patient safety. This includes the possibility that Transcare could take over the 911 emergency ambulance service from January to July, and then pull back to doing interfacility transports only when the fire district takes over with an all-volunteer service.
jcolson@postindependent.com
Susan Taylor, who has been since 1993 in various capacities with the ambulance service now known as West Care, made the sudden announcement at the Silt Board of Trustees meeting.
The unexpected development means that the ambulance service, which was expected to merge with the fire district on or around July 1, 2010, is now without a director, since Taylor's resignation was effective immediately.
And the expected “transition” of 911 emergency medical service from West Care to the fire district may now have to take place earlier than expected, to overcome what Burning Mountains Fire Chief Brit McLin called a “leadership void.”
The merger of the 911 service has been in the works for some time.
The West Care service operated as an “enterprise fund” under Silt's municipal umbrella, meaning it paid its own way with fees for service, serving essentially the same area as the fire district.
Silt officials worried that, due to a variety of factors, the service might become a liability problem for town taxpayers, either directly through a need for rising financial subsidies or indirectly through insurance claims.
As the deal to hand off the 911 service to Burning Mountains progressed, Taylor made it known that she planned to go to work for another regional ambulance service based in Montrose, called Transcare. Transcare is involved in separate negotiations to take over from West Care the job of transporting patients between hospitals and other medical facilities, which is distinct from the 911 function.
But in her announcement, Taylor accused Silt's town administrator, Betsy Suerth, of having “censored” Taylor's efforts to talk directly to members of the Silt Board of Trustees and the fire district.
She also accused Suerth of resorting to “intimidation” to force Taylor to prevent her ambulance employees from speaking directly to the same officials, in an apparent attempt to affect the terms of the merger.
Taylor said that at one time, after two ambulance workers addressed a meeting about the merger in New Castle, Suerth told her “I needed to control my staff better, [or] I would be fired.”
Taylor's claims were supported by several West Care employees, and she said she was resigning because “I can no longer tolerate ... the abusive administrative tactics or the hostile work environment” that she claimed Suerth had created for her.
Silt Mayor Dave Moore, as well as town attorney Eugene Duran, said they learned of Taylor's decision last week, and Duran indicated that he and Suerth had been scrambling to find ways to work around Taylor's departure.
“The leadership of West Care is, in effect, defecting to Transcare,” Duran declared at one point.
Moore, in an apparent effort to cool the tempers in the room, read a letter lauding Taylor's work and calling her “revered ... respected and loved” as the shepherd of “an incredible ambulance service.”
Silt officials declined to discuss Taylor's allegations against Suerth.
Officials from Silt and the fire district pledged to rearrange the merger in a “seamless transition” that would not endanger patient safety. This includes the possibility that Transcare could take over the 911 emergency ambulance service from January to July, and then pull back to doing interfacility transports only when the fire district takes over with an all-volunteer service.
jcolson@postindependent.com
