Concerning safety

When it comes to ambulance service, safety is always a top priority, for both the patients and the ambulance employees.

Recently, safety concerns among employees of Castle Rock Ambulance Service have led to discussions of whether or not a union could be formed, the resignation of the ambulance service's director, and changes to things like schedules to try to address concerns.

Safety concerns

Over the summer, employees of the ambulance service started to express concerns over some aspects of their working conditions. Matthew West, the director of EMS for Castle Rock Hospital District at the time, shared these concerns.

West was responsible for overseeing the daily operations and running everything for the ambulance service. He had been brought on board as director in May, and he hoped to help with the ongoing transition period as Castle Rock took over ambulance service for the entire county - a change that initially happened last November. 

"There's still quite a bit of division between both sides," West said, explaining he hoped to help move the unified service forward. 

While adjusting to the new system, employees began to express concerns over safety considerations. Many of these concerns were connected to fatigue tied to working long shifts and driving long distances for transports. 

"They're not getting a whole lot of rest, specifically at the Green River station, because they had been moved to 24-hour shifts and they don't have beds, they have to kind of sleep on couches," West said. 

He explained that sometimes employees would be 14 or 16 hours into a 24-hour shift when they were asked to drive for a roughly seven-hour round trip to Salt Lake City and back to transport a patient. 

"We were trying to call in people that were fresh to do the transfers," West explained. "That was stopped due to concerns for overtime, so I was no longer allowed to do that."  

While West understood the importance of doing transfers and serving the county, he felt that the restrictions on staff due to cutting back on hours limited his options. He said he would do more work himself to try to cut back on the overtime of other employees, often taking calls, doing office work, and even doing transfers himself. He said at one point he spent 60 hours in an ambulance in one week. 

The concerns over working conditions were brought to Human Resources and Castle Rock CEO Bailie Dockter, according to West. He also noted that he never went in front of the Board of Directors to talk about the concerns, and he wasn't allowed to contact the county commissioners. 

During recent Board of County Commissioner meetings, some of the commissioners noted that the commissioners had received some complaints about the ambulance service over issues like employee morale, but said they don't feel it is their role to handle internal concerns. 

Despite taking the concerns to HR and the CEO, West felt it didn't accomplish much. 

"There really just wasn't a whole lot of response," West said. "We were just told 'you have to make it work,' so that's what we were doing."

Union discussions

Despite trying to make things work, the safety concerns remained, which eventually led some of the employees to reach out to the United Steelworkers union. 

William Wilkinson, the United Steelworkers representative for Wyoming, explained that the Steelworkers have a local presence because of their representation for groups like mine employees, so some of the ambulance employees who knew Steelworkers members ended up reaching out through their friends. 

Around the beginning of August, Wilkinson met with ambulance employees to discuss their concerns and explain how a union contract can be used to help address workplace issues. He had the employees sign union cards expressing a desire to unionize. According to Wilkinson, 65% of eligible employees signed cards. 

Only after this process was put into motion did Wilkinson realize that Castle Rock Hospital District is a unique entity. Because he's new to the area, Wilkinson was unaware that Castle Rock is its own political subdivision that operates under a Board of Directors.

"Because we're a special health district, and an entity of the state, it was determined by the National Labor Relations Board that they don't have jurisdiction over us," Castle Rock CEO Bailie Dockter explained. "So it was pretty quickly dismissed as something that they weren't able to organize here, so there was never a vote." 

The Steelworkers realized that, because of a mixture of Wyoming State law and the way the hospital district is set up, the Castle Rock Board of Directors has the right to decide whether or not employees can have an election to unionize. The petition for the election was withdrawn, but according to Wilkinson the board could have chosen to let the election continue.

"They weren't even allowed to make a decision if they wanted a union or not," Wilkinson said. "And their drive was all safety-based. They're concerned about the patients. They're concerned about the community. They're concerned about coverage, that they're leaving people unprotected, and that they're also endangering patients by having that fatigue."

Wilkinson pointed out that the desire to unionize he heard employees express wasn't driven by greed or over concerns for issues like wages, and wasn't meant to be a slight against Castle Rock, but was focused on improving working conditions to improve safety and patient care.

"They approached us and their intentions were pure," Wilkinson said. "What they were doing was trying to help the community." 

The employees felt like their voices weren't being heard, according to Wilkinson.

"They said that they have made numerous complaints about the safety, the conditions of the ambulance stations, and nothing has happened, that they're falling on deaf ears," Wilkinson said. "They're our first responders and we should be listening to their concerns."

When it came to the possibility of employees unionizing, the previous EMS director West felt that the hospital district leadership was firmly opposed to the idea. 

"They definitely were against it, without a doubt," he said. "The CEO was obviously against it, and then I don't think the board was for it either."

After the petition for a union election was dismissed, West remained concerned about the conditions creating safety issues. 

"It became a difference of opinions because I felt like we were not servicing the county the best we could," he said. 

West resigned from his position as director and left on September 11. 

Addressing the issues

Many of the recent concerns brought up by ambulance employees have come from the process of transitioning to servicing the entire county, according to CEO Bailie Dockter. She said the process has included a lot of adjustment and education for employees. 

One of these adjustments was for the employees who hadn't handled transports previously, which added extra volume to their work.

"They're getting more used to it now," she said.

The process of getting used to transports required extra education and working with staff on coming to work rested, communicating if they're fatigued, and realizing that other available crews may be tired as well, so it comes down to deciding which crew is the most fit to respond, according to Dockter. 

She also believes some of the current situations are actually an improvement from how things were before. 

"We have a blended 24-hour shift, and then employees take a break for eight hours, and then they work for another 16," Dockter explained. "It is a lot less than prior long shifts that employees were experiencing in Rock Springs. When we took over in Rock Springs, people were working 98 hours straight." 

Still, Castle Rock has been working on improving the transport system so there is more communication and a more set schedule. This way, employees know what to expect and aren't surprised by being chosen for a transport.

"As far as addressing the safety concerns, we did go ahead and implement a rotation where if you have to take a long distance transport, you know that your truck is up," Dockter explained.

Castle Rock is also aware of the situation concerning sleeping quarters in the Green River station and seeing if anything can be done about it. They've met with the fire inspector to discuss what changes would need to be made to add sleeping quarters and comply with safety requirements, like having a sprinkler system.

"It is something that we are aware of and are working on and have communicated with staff a lot about," Dockter said.

When it comes to the issues that matter to staff, Dockter feels that Castle Rock has been working to listen, gauge the concerns, and respond.

"We've had tons and tons of meetings that we've sat down with people over the last nine months to try to make sure that employees' concerns are addressed," she said.

Dockter also gave positive reports on the ambulance service's progress to both the Board of County Commissioners and Castle Rock's Board of Directors at recent meetings.

During the Castle Rock Board meeting on Tuesday, Dockter announced that the new EMS director for ambulance service will be Kim White, who has been working at the Emergency Services Director at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County. She will begin with a training program at the end of October and will be starting work full-time at the beginning of November.