Kingfisher city commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to enter a contract they hope will provide timely nonemergency patient transfers from the local hospital while freeing the local fire department to focus on fire and medical emergencies within its service area.

Medford-based Miller EMS, a private ambulance company that serves Cashion and a number of other towns in the state, will provide a fully-staffed ambulance in Kingfisher 24-7 to respond to the hospital’s nonemergency transfers.

The local ambulance team will include a paramedic as well as EMTs to accommodate patients who require a higher level of care during transfers from Mercy Kingfisher to larger or more specialized facilities in Oklahoma City.

“We’re not requesting any funding from the city or county at all,” Miller representative Jim Koch told commissioners. “Our funds will come directly from billing patients at the Medicare rate.”

Koch added that transfers will be provided regardless of patients’ ability to pay.

Miller already has two bases of operation in or near Kingfisher and plan to add a third one located in between the fire department and hospital, based on anticipated demand.

“We’ve already been looking at property,” Koch said.

As both emergency and nonemergency transfers increased exponentially in recent years with the increase in big truck and other traffic in the area, nonemergency ambulance transfers had become a bone of contention between Mercy Hospital and the city.

Required by law to provide emergency medical service and transfers within the city and the wider 522 Ambulance District, the fire department has no such mandate regarding nonemergency transfers that occur after a patient has been stabilized at the local hospital and is being sent to another facility for treatment or testing.

“I’ve been looking at this problem for quite a while. We’ve been dealing with this situation with the hospital for three and a half or four years,” Stewart said. “As of last year, our ambulance calls increased by 178 over the year before, and we just can’t keep up with emergencies and nonemergencies.”

However, patients and their families who see their medical conditions as serious and urgent, even though not legally an emergency, have become irate when they’ve been left to wait an extended period for service from an out-of-town provider.

After discussions with hospital administration led to no solutions, Stewart started looking for a third-party provider as a possible answer.

“I’ve reached out to a couple of ambulance services and Miller showed the most interest,” Stewart said.

Stewart said his crew will help Miller with hospital transfers when needed and Miller also will assist with local emergencies when called upon, under the same kind of mutual aid arrangements that neighboring emergency services typically share.

“We expect this agreement to be a benefit to all three of us – the city, the hospital and the community,” City Manager Dave Slezickey said. “You guys (Miller EMS) have a great reputation.”

“The city manager and chief have been wonderful to deal with,” Koch said. “We go into a lot of different areas and this group has been more cooperative than any other.”

See Sunday’s Times and Free Press for additional stories on actions taken at Monday night’s lengthy city commission meeting, including naming the Kingfisher Trails’ downtown park and festival grounds Newfield Community Park, in honor of a half-million-dollar donation from the Newfield Foundation, the city’s FY 2018 audit, trash situation and more.