Assistant City Administrator Jason Stroud reported to the River Falls Common Council at the November 10 council meeting on the City’s transition to Allina Health as its EMS services provider along with the surrounding area.

“We’re in the home stretch of the EMS transition and I thought it would be a good opportunity to kind of give you a quick update on how things are going and what lies ahead in the future,” Stroud said, alluding to city ordinances up for repeal on the night’s agenda, said ordinances dealing with the City’s administration of local EMS services, now transitioned to Allina Health.

Starting with a look back at how River Falls had come to the present transition crossroad, Stroud, noted a 2017 assessment by a third-party firm of EMS services in River Falls, followed by an internal 2019 feasibility assessment on transitioning to a non-governmental organization (NGO) “as a viable alternative for long-term sustainability,” Stroud said. From then to the present there had been an EMS Advisory Board workshop study in October of 2019, followed with a search for a potential partner in EMS services, along with a finalist.

“Allina EMS was the respondent we chose to pursue,” Stroud said of the October to December 2019 search. Following this, a City Council workshop had been held in January of 2020, followed with the Council approving transition to Allina February 11, 2020.

“We worked out terms of a contractual agreement and presented that to you in March,” Stroud told the council of the contract details involved. From there it had been a matter of getting the other details right, including a license for Allina to operate within the State of Wisconsin by the Department of Health Services EMS section. Stroud said that all current full-time EMS employees for the City had chosen to accept offers of employment with Allina and that the health care provider was working to get them

See AMBULANCE, Page 11 onboarded.

“Allina has been working very hard with our current staff to get them onboarded and trained, and ready for the transition,” he said. “I’m very pleased to report that all of our fulltime EMS staff have chosen to accept offers of employment with Alina and they will continue to serve in our community,” he went on. Stroud also said that some employees had retried completely from EMS, while others had contracts elsewhere that would have conflicted with them working for Allina. Of the private healthcare provider itself, Stroud said that, “They will be purchasing our fleet and some of our capital assets,” while Allina had brought in its own contractor to bring the building they would be using in line with needs and the terms of their lease agreement with the City. Also present with Stroud for the council meeting November 10 were Dave Matteson, manager of ambulance operations for Allina Health North Metro EMS and Matt Bouthilet, supervisor of ambulance operations for River Falls. Bouthilet took time out to address the council after Matteson had finished his remarks.

“It’s been an honor,” Bouthilet said, thanking the River Falls EMS staff for their openness with both himself and Matteson. “I look forward to keeping that going,’ he said. “There’s a real drive out here to serve the community.” Outside the November 10 meeting, a news release from Allina Health made known the shift in service providers, affecting not just River Falls but also the surrounding area and communities, specifically mentioning, “Clifton, Pleasant Valley, River Falls, Oak Grove, Troy, Kinnickinnic, and Prescott” as being affected by the transition.

“We are proud to have been selected by the River Falls City Council to serve their city,” Susan Long said as vice president of operations for Allina Health EMS, giving the City of River Falls props for its “rigorous evaluation” process to settle on Allina Health. “We look forward to a long future in the city and to becoming a good neighbor to

all the area communities we now serve,” Long said of the western Pierce County service area.