EMS levy renewal to fund equipment upgrades, prevention programs and more

Businesspeople say time is money. Robert May, lead medic at WhidbeyHealth, says time is life. The EMS levy, appearing on the Aug. 6 primary ballot, shows how each of these things — time, money and life — are intimately intertwined.

Levy funds make up 60% of the EMS budget, said Director Chris Tumblin, and the newest ballot item is a simple renewal, which happens every six years. The levy may increase by up to 1% each year, which isn’t close to keeping up with the rate of inflation. The newest ask will increase monthly taxes by about $7 per $500,000 of the property value; if passed, the total levy will be 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

If it doesn’t pass, the department must operate at 40% of its typical budget, he said, a massive reduction in services that will lead to longer response times.

The EMS levy started on Whidbey in 1978, Tumblin said. Post 9/11, WhidbeyHealth leaders suggested going for a lifetime levy, without having to renew it every six years, confident it would be approved because of the emphasis on and support of first responders at that time. Despite this, the then-director opted for the six-year levy, as having to renew it incentivizes Whidbey EMS to give the best possible customer service with a built-in review.

EMS looks at the levy renewal like a report card, Tumblin said. If it passes with a sweeping majority, as it has in the past, they know they did something right.

“The community has always been fantastic,” he said, “and if they aren’t happy with something, they certainly let me know, and we work on improving.”

The department makes system improvements when the levy is renewed, Tumblin said. They don’t go after bonds.

Some of these funds will support vehicle and station upgrades.

WhidbeyHealth currently has seven Advance Life Support ambulances, meaning each has at least one paramedic. They also have two Basic Life Support ambulances, which collaborate with North and Central Whidbey Fire and Rescue. WhidbeyHealth pays the fire departments for the staffing they provide to these ambulances, and they also rent space from them to house the vehicles at their stations.

When Tumblin first joined WhidbeyHealth in 1991, they ran 1,700 calls, he said. Last year, they ran 9,800 calls and are on track to beat it this year. With the new housing developments and predicted influx of people to the island, these numbers will only increase, which also calls for more ambulances.

Whidbey has more ambulances per capita than big cities like Bellevue and Seattle, Tumblin said, but Whidbey has unique — and severe — geographical challenges that other communities don’t. While most cities in Washington can rely on departments in neighboring cities, being on an island, WhidbeyHealth cannot.

If someone has a heart attack, the state mandates EMS to take them to a cardiac center. On Whidbey, this means traveling to Mount Vernon or Everett, depending on the patient’s needs. This also means an ambulance taken out of service on Whidbey, sometimes for most of the day.

“We live and die by the ferry,” Tumblin said.

If Everett’s Providence Regional Medical Center emergency room is full, which has happened in higher numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes the patient must wait in the ambulance before they go in, increasing the out of service time even more.

“It could be 10 minutes,” May said. “It could be six hours.”

Ambulances are not cheap, Tumblin said, and WhidbeyHealth is due for more. Ambulances fall to back-up service once they hit 150,000 miles, he said, and the pandemic set the department back two years on ambulance upgrades.

The department ordered two ambulances with grant money last year which cost $237,000 a piece, he said. A couple months ago, they ordered another, and the price had already gone up by $40,000 due to inflation.

This does not include the additional $100,000 worth of equipment they must add to them, he said.

This also does not mean WhidbeyHealth has three brand-new ambulances, he said. Once the department makes an order, it takes over 500 days for an ambulance to be built. Further, these new vehicles still won’t catch up with the island’s demand.

Tumblin said that the department will need to order two more in 2025 and an additional two within six months of that.

“We have to start catching up,” he said. “By the end of this year we are only going to have two ambulances under 150,000 miles.”

Oak Harbor’s station was built in 1999, and the South End station was built in 2007. While these buildings will be used for some time, the Central Whidbey station needs upgrades.

“That is basically just a pole building that was supposed to be temporary, 10 years at the most,” Tumblin said, “but we’ve been in that one for 30, 33 years.”

What they are looking for is simple, he said: space to house the additional equipment and ambulances needed. Functionality, not extravagance.

“We’re not looking to build the Taj Mahal,” he said.

WhidbeyHealth provides many lesser-known services in addition to responding to emergencies, May said. The hospital district focuses largely on injury and illness prevention via community outreach.

Programs such as Take10, which teaches CPR and AED use, ACT, which teaches how to become a citizen first responder in an overdose situation and SAIL, which seeks to prevent seniors from falling, are some ways WhidbeyHealth seeks to get on top of emergencies before they happen.

Senior falls make up about 20% of Whidbey’s 911 calls, May said. The department created a virtual, one-hour exercise program which seeks to keep seniors active and independent. It’s the only virtual SAIL program in the state, and the Department of Veterans Affairs is looking at Whidbey’s model for national expansion.

Community events, such as the hydroplane races in Oak Harbor, cannot happen without an ambulance sitting nearby, May said.

“We do that for free,” he said. “We consider that the community has paid it forward with their levy money.”