THATCHER — Mark Vining said he perceives the current state of ambulance service in the Gila Valley as “prioritization of money versus people.”
Vining, who serves as vice mayor of Thatcher in addition to owning the Vining Funeral Home, made his comments during Monday’s Thatcher Town Council meeting, during discussion on whether to support Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center’s efforts to seek a certificate of necessity (CON) to operate a local ambulance service and replace Life Line Ambulance in Graham County.
“I can say I’m the last responder, which puts me in a position to see what’s going on,” Vining said to Jacob Dalstra, director of Operations for AMR, the parent company of Life Line Ambulance. “I have more vehicles available on our team than you do, and that’s a grave concern to me.”
The Town Council was asked if it wanted to rescind a letter of support for MGRMC, previously issued by the town manager, and issue a new letter approved by the council.
Before the vote, two members of the council declared a conflict of interest and stepped away from discussion — Randy Bryce, who serves as the chief operating officer for MGRMC, and Bryce Carter, whose father is Dr. Bart Carter, the hospital’s CEO.
In addition, Council Member Carolina Gaethje was absent, but Mayor Jenny Howard said Gaethje was also declaring a conflict, as Gaethje serves as president of the hospital Board of Directors.
In previous appearances before the Safford and Pima councils, Dalstra said AMR has spent more than $250,000 this year in improvements in the Gila Valley for Life Line Ambulance, has three ambulances in service in Graham County, and plans to make improvements to the ambulance barn in Safford.
During Monday’s meeting in Thatcher, Dalstra said Life Line now operates four ambulances in Graham County — through he clarified on questioning that one of the ambulances serves as on-call when the other three are occupied — and AMR is exploring development of a second ambulance barn in Thatcher.
He also detailed the longer response times the company sought and received approval for during the pandemic. The Department of Health Services approved different response times depending on location — to a call in Safford; to calls in Solomon, Pima and Thatcher; and to calls in the rest of the county.
The times the ambulance must arrive are:
Safford
- 10 minutes in 65 percent of the calls
- 11 minutes in 75 percent of the calls
- 15 minutes in 85 percent of the calls
- 25 minutes in 95 percent of the calls
- 60 minutes in 98 percent of the calls
Solomon/Thatcher/Pima
- 12 minutes in 50 percent of the calls
- 15 minutes in 65 percent of the calls
- 25 minutes in 85 percent of the calls
- 45 minutes in 95 percent of the calls
- 50 minutes in 98 percent of the calls
All other areas of Graham County
- 15 minutes in 30 percent of the calls
- 20 minutes in 65 percent of the calls
- 30 minutes in 86 percent of the calls
- 60 minutes in 99 percent of the calls
There are currently four ambulance services in Graham County, though only Life Line serves non-tribal residents. The San Carlos Apache Tribe has a CON to serve residents on the reservation, Freeport-McMoRan has a CON for an ambulance service at the mine, and PHI has a CON to use an ambulance as ground transport between the hospital and Safford Airport when a patient has to be flown to a Phoenix or Tucson hospital for advanced care.
Following discussion, the Thatcher Town Council voted 4-0 to rescind the previous letter and issue a new letter of support for Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center’s effort to obtain a certificate of necessity from the Arizona Department of Health Services to operate an ambulance serving the county.
