Time has run out for the Grays Harbor EMS & Trauma Care Council (GHEMS). After two years of fighting to hang on, all available funds at GHEMS have been exhausted.

The nonprofit has provided emergency medical service training to county first responders since 1983. Short of a financial miracle, GHEMS will be closing their office on Sumner Avenue in Aberdeen effective May 1.

GHEMS has historically been funded through the Grays Harbor County Transit Authority since ambulance services have been legally regarded as the transportation of the public. In March 2020, however, an annual audit by the Washington State Auditor’s Office determined this funding mechanism to be illegal. GHEMS has been scrambling to fill the gap in funding for the last two years.

“Today, I come before you because we’re at a critical state at GHEMS. This is real life today, as we sit here and talk. It’s going to impact tourism and rural cities,” said GHEMS Board Chair and Grays Harbor Fire District 2 Fire Chief Frank Scherer in a special council meeting on Monday, March 7.

GHEMS membership includes representatives from local fire departments and districts, law enforcement, emergency services, and hospitals. Representatives from several local fire departments and regional fire authorities were present at Monday’s meeting, as well as the GHEMS council, volunteer board, and Medical Program Director, Dr. Julie Buck.

The GHEMS board and sole staff member, County Coordinator Louisa Schreier, have attempted several funding avenues since the state audit upended their financial operations. According to Scherer, the nonprofit organization has been running on donations from local businesses and individuals, but that money is about to run out.

Twice they applied to allocate some of the funds Grays Harbor County received from The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES Act, which passed Congress on March 27, 2020, allocated approximately $14 billion to the Office of Postsecondary Education through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund I (HEERF I).

GHEMS has traditionally run their EMT training courses in conjunction with Grays Harbor College (GHC) to offer college credit, a practice that stopped late last year due to additional funding demands from GHC. Despite GHEMS’ role in providing trauma certification instruction, both requests for CARES Act funding were denied.

They attempted again with HEERF III from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, but have already been denied once and are not optimistic that their fortunes will change for their more recent application.

“There hasn’t been a final decision on the ARPA funding yet. I’d like to say I’m hopeful, but I think the last couple of years have shown us that when we tend to be hopeful, we’re told it’s public funds or we don’t qualify for that,” said Dr. Buck.

“Without funding for two years, it’s really impressive that people have got the funding to go on for this long. We’re out of money. At this point, it’s important that people understand we really might be closing our doors for all intents and purposes on May 1.”

Even if their request for $500,000 in ARP funding over two years is approved, GHEMS will still be left without a long-term funding source.

Scherer and GHEMS Vice Chair Roger Towns have been working to alter the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 82.14.450 so that GHEMS and other emergency medical services could access the funding set aside for police and fire through the Public Safety Sales Tax. County attorneys previously deemed that GHEMS did not meet the intent of the tax due to verbiage.

Their bill to increase permissible uses of the sales tax authority passed the Washington State Senate last year (49-0), but died in the Washington State House of Representatives. Scherer and Towns sent a letter to Washington state Senator Jeff Wilson (R-Longview) to get their bill back on the agenda, but were recently informed by Wilson that their window of opportunity had closed.

“It seems like there’s something that can be done, something we haven’t thought of, but we’ve run out of ideas,” said Buck.

Despite support from Grays Harbor County Commissioner, District 3 Vickie Raines, who attended Monday’s meeting via Zoom while at a conference out of state, ARP funding remains uncertain. While the funds would support GHEMS operations for an additional two years, attempts to improve access to funds from the Public Safety Sales Tax will have to be successful for a true solution to be found.

Without GHEMS, it will be up to local fire departments to find alternative avenues to recertify EMTs, a task they will have to fund themselves.

“You have to have a state certified training center to do it. Whether it goes to the county or the college, they’ll have to reapply to the state to become a training center,” said Schreier. “It’s a big application, 15-20 pages, and I could see that not happening at all, and then you’d have to go out of county for those classes.”

According to Towns, GHEMS trains close to 400 EMTs a year. The initial EMT certification class serves as an essential pipeline to increasing the number of EMTs in the local community, and is particularly important for rural communities in the county that may lack a certified provider altogether. They are also responsible for providing training to existing EMTs so they can renew their licenses, which occurs every three years, in addition to annual and per certification cycle training.

“Unless we can find some money, we’ll be steady on our plan and meet with the board. We’ll have an official document come out with our timeline for closure,” said Scherer.