Harper Named Co-Chair of Connecticut Emergency Services Task Force

By Jessie Sawyer and Kaitlin McCallum

When a House bill raised by Farmington Rep. Mike Demicco attempted to overturn the longtime status quo of emergency services and give towns the ability to choose their own provider, the answer was a silent no.

The public health committee stripped the bill of all mention of its original intent and replaced it with language on disciplining technicians and instructors.

But, the bill, which passed last year, did allow for the creation of a task force – the Connecticut Emergency Medical Services Primary Service Area Task Force – to study the issue of how public service areas are assigned to providers and how towns should be able to change them.

Connecticut Speaker of the House J. Brendan Sharkey appointed Farmington Fire and Emergency Services Director Mary-Ellen Harper to the task force in July. 

In September, the task force elected her as co-chair with Raphael Barishansky, director of EMS for the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

"I am very excited about the opportunities associated with co-chairing the State EMS PSA Task Force," she said. "My work so far has given me an opportunity to work with a group of fire chiefs, police chiefs, town managers, mayors and state elected officials who genuinely want to assure that they are delivering the best possible patient care for their residents."

Harper said that the opportunity is also teaching her about how the state government operates and the democratic process.

"I do understand that there is a need for regulatory oversight by the State, but when State Regulation hinders the ability of a local municipality to assure that it is providing the best possible service to its residents, it is time to fix the system," she said. "And my goal is to do accomplish just that!"

Months before her appointment to the task force, back in January, Harper asked Demicco "to sponsor legislation that would allow municipalities to make improvements to the way emergency medical services are provided within their communities," she wrote in an email to Patch. That led to his introduction of the emergency services bill to the House. 

"One of the State of Connecticut’s one of the lesser understood elements is the Primary Service Area Designation System which falls under the auspices of the Department of Public Health," she said. "In the 1970s, when this system was established, specific agencies or companies were designated as Emergency Medical Services providers for specific geographic areas. These designations were essentially granted for life, not unlike the term of a Supreme Court Justice."

Currently, state regulations prevent municipalities from choosing their own emergency services provider unless town officials can prove that  "an emergency exists and that the safety, health and welfare of the citizens of the affected area are jeopardized by the performance of the assigned primary service area responder," Harper said. 

"I will venture a guess that many of the towns in Connecticut who do not hold their PSA do not even realize that the State of Connecticut has essentially forced them into an arranged marriage with their EMS providers," she added. 

Harper seeks to improve what she calls and "antiquated system that inhibits good government, the need for transparency, and essentially creates a state-mandated monopoly within each individual PSA." 

Beyond not being able to explore alternative emergency service provider options, Harper said that current state regulations also prevent municipalities from opting to "share resources."

"Municipalities successfully manage the delivery of fire, police, public works and virtually every other service they provide to their residents.  Emergency Medical Services should be no exception," she said. 

The task force has 15 members of the group, including representatives from non-profit and for-profit ambulance companies, representative of a municipal emergency medical services provider and town, hospital and fire service representatives.

The task force has now met a few times and is just beginning to get organized.

It is charged with presenting a report including recommended action by Feb. 15, 2014.