As part of our continuing coverage of EMS services on the Western Slope, we next head to the West End of Montrose County. The Nucla-Naturita EMS Department has a 940 square-mile coverage area. The small, mostly volunteer EMS agency serves the communities of Nulca, Naturita, Paradox, and others in the West End. The area has a population of around 2,000 residents and the nearest hospital is two hours away in Montrose. For KVNF, Laura Palmisano interviews Nucla-Naturita EMS Chief Jeff Stephens. He discusses the difficulties the rural and remote EMS agency faces.
Laura Palmisano: What are some of the challenges for EMS in your area?
Jeff Stephens: Getting people to volunteer and funding.
LP: Why is it a challenge to get people to volunteer?
JS: That seems to be a nationwide problem from others that I've talked to. It's just the, the drive to volunteer seems to be diminishing. I have no explanation for why. I started out as a volunteer. I volunteered for 15 years while working a full-time job.
LP: What are the challenges of being an EMS volunteer?
JS: The time you put into it, especially if you have a full-time job. Like, for our department, the big time challenge is the transport distances we have to do. We don't have a hospital nearby, so our transports are two hours in any direction, which results in one call taking five to six hours.
LP: Where's your nearest hospital?
JS: The nearest one would be Montrose, Montrose Regional Health. It's, I think, 95 miles. It's about a two-hour drive. And second to that, we use Grand Junction St. Mary's or Community Hospital in Grand Junction, which is 110 miles.
LP: That's quite a distance to have to travel to transport patients. What do you do when it's a call a basic EMT can't service?
JS: We would call for help. Like, if a basic had a call for a heart attack, for example, and we had no— advanced heart care in the area. They would call Norwood, which is 20 miles away, that would send over either an ambulance or an ACLS provider to help out. We call it mutual aid. They do the same. They call us for help. We call them for help.
LP: When you live in such a remote area, why are mutual aid agreements with other counties and EMS services vital?
JS: Because of the remoteness, we have to rely on each other. The other challenge we face is the lack of communications. We live in canyons. And, when we get down into canyons, there is no cell, no radio or anything. So we have to be able to rely on people doing their job well and others nearby. An example of that would be if we're going to Grand Junction, we go up Highway 141 through Gateway. If we needed additional help, we could call on Gateway to come in and help, which we did yesterday during our climber rescue.
LP: I recall in a previous conversation, you mentioned you and your wife can't take vacation. Can you elaborate on why that is?
JS: We primarily do most of the responses. Our other providers, like one of the other AMTs lives in Norwood and she comes in maybe once a month to take calls. And the other one is a retired physician's assistant who has a dual residency. He lives in Texas and he'll live here for a while. So he's not in the area a lot, but Tanya and I are in the area a lot. So we do the primary bulk of the work.
LP: So what does that mean for you personally and how it affects your life?
JS: Well, I don't get to see my grand kids much. I'd like to see more of them if I could.
LP: So basically you can't leave town?
JS: No, we really shouldn't. We've got a responsibility to this community.
LP: And why bear the brunt of that responsibility?
JS: Somebody's got to do it.
LP: How do you not get burned out?
JS: You find something that relaxes your brain, a hobby, hopefully a good habit. Stay away from bad things like alcohol and drugs and, you know, try to keep a clean head.
LP: What would be the biggest help for EMS in your area?
JS: Better funding. The pay for the calls, in addition to that, is a tax-based mill levy, is too low. We're needing more funding.
LP: Have you considered what some other nearby communities have done?Like, take Hinsdale County, where they have a lodging-tax that they recently increased and have a portion of that money going towards EMS.
JS: So they, they considered the lodging tax, and the one major motel that we had in the area was just bought out by a large hotel chain. And converted it to living quarters so they could put their staff for the construction of a new hotel in Telluride. So they're going to staff their employees that are going to be doing the construction on this new hotel in Telluride in our former motel. So we really don't have a lot of lodging here. So a lodging tax wouldn't work. We have talked to other agencies, one in particular being Grand Junction, that has given us some really good ideas on improving our funding.
LP: What are some of those options?
JS: A mill levy increase, which taxpayers don't like, but they might explain the necessity of it, would be one. Increasing our fire district boundaries would help with PILT money, Payment in Lieu of Taxes for public lands. We try to stay out of relying on grant money and stuff like that for funding. We use it occasionally, but you can't rely on it because it's not always there.
LP: How would you call out to your community to help?
JS: Help us help you.
LP: And, what does that mean to you?
JS: Just to understand when we ask for an increase in the mill levy, and if you've got a minute to spare, come volunteer and help us out.
LP: Because EMS services are vital?
JS: EMS services are vital. Our state just recognized that. It saves lives.
