Florida City`s Medical Response Lowered in Mix-Up

Oct. 6--ORANGE CITY -- For about six hours Wednesday, the city fire department stopped responding with "advanced life support" amid rumors that the county suddenly snatched away a key license.

As it turns out, the county didn't. And no one suffered as a result, city officials insist.

But the confusion highlights tensions between the two agencies, which continue to labor over an agreement to help each other respond to emergencies.

The county required all its cities to craft agreements with each other and the county so fire stations respond to the closest emergencies, regardless of city limits.

Orange City is the only Volusia municipality that hasn't yet finalized that arrangement -- it was due Oct. 1 -- and so the county hasn't formally renewed its county license, known as a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity.

Although the state issues licenses for emergency medical response, the city has to have the county's approval to provide advanced medical procedures for patients, including those suffering traumatic injuries.

Because the city wasn't sure it still could do that, it downgraded its level of service to "basic life support" from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., said City Manager John McCue.

He said he needed to confirm that the city still had that authority twice before he allowed his paramedics and technicians to rush to residents' aid with more-advanced equipment.

Basic life support includes techniques such as bandaging and CPR.

Advanced life support requires a higher degree of training and involves such things as injecting drugs, invasive procedures, and advanced cardiac and respiratory care. For hours Wednesday, different rumors swirled, causing confusion, he said.

"I told them, out of an abundance of caution, to run BLS [basic life support] until we get this clarified," McCue said.

The source of the rumors was unclear Thursday.

County officials said they want the city to continue its service. It has not asked the state for enforcement because discussions between the county and city have been "very positive," said county spokesman Dave Byron. He said he expects an agreement soon. Orange City's state license expires in December.

Orange City, home to about 9,200 people, has had a similar arrangement with neighboring Deltona for years.

"There's no intention on the part of the county to try to disrupt what Orange City is doing right now," Byron said.

Meanwhile, the county's point person on the closest-unit response issue suddenly resigned Wednesday, though county officials said the resignation of Matt Zavadsky as emergency medical-services director had to do with personal reasons.

Reached by telephone Thursday evening, Zavadsky wouldn't elaborate. But he said he didn't leave his $74,410-a-year post to take another position.

His short resignation letter does not give a reason.

McCue said the city and county have made progress on an agreement. But details will have to be reworked because the city opened a second fire station this week with the goal of reducing response times.

He said he hopes emergency workers leaving the new station, located at a water-utility plant off Harley Strickland Boulevard, will be able to reach the city's southern commercial area in less than three minutes.

"That's huge," he said. "There's nobody who can make responses in three minutes."

County records show the current response time for medical emergencies there averages 5 minutes, 36 seconds.

Denise-Marie Balona can be reached at or 386-851-7916.

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