Sooner rather than later

Carbon County will potentially forgo the state-required competitive bidding requirement in obtaining a new ambulance for Memorial Hospital of Carbon County (MHCC). The decision comes as the United States is facing nationwide ambulance shortages and the United Auto Workers have gone on strike.

At the September 19 meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCC), Clerk Gwynn Bartlett spoke to the commissioners regarding the procurement process. Bartlett reminded the board the County had applied for a grant through the State Lands Investment Board using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.

“In the grant agreement, it talks about bidding requirements and then when I was reading federal procurement requirements, it seems there could be a way for a non-competitive procurement,” said Bartlett. “The hospital has already put a chassis on hold several months ago, and it still would not be available until early 2024.”

Bartlett cited Code of Federal Regulations section 200.320©, which pertains to circumstances in which non-competitive procurement can be used. She specifically cited subjection three, which reads that such a process can be used if a public competitive bidding process were to create a public emergency. According to Bartlett, she spoke with MHCC regarding the state and age of their ambulance fleet before speaking with Deputy Attorney Ashley Mayfield-Davis.

“The short story is, is there a safety risk to the community? The law requires you to follow your own procurement policy which does allow for good cause to waive the policy,” said Mayfield-Davis. “There are some secondary steps we’re going to take that the hospital board needs to include in their minutes and make sure they’re in favor of waiving the procurement policy for this reason. We want to make sure we have documentation.”

According to Mayfield-Davis, one piece of documentation will be a legal opinion from herself stating she believes MHCC and Carbon County qualify for a non-competitive procurement. All the documentation, however, must be reviewed by the State of Wyoming.

“We want to make sure that the State will accept all of those items in lieu of bidding documents,” said Mayfield-Davis.

The discussion surrounding the procurement of the ambulance came just four days after the United Auto Workers began striking at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. It is unclear if the strike would further impact MHCC’s procurement of a new ambulance through a public bid process. Commissioner John Espy, however, commended MHCC.

“Holding that chassis was probably the best thing to happen now,” said Espy. “If it gets turned loose, then you get put into the bottom of the queue again. You’ve got, at least, a holding spot in the queue.”

Along with the United Auto Workers strike, there is also an ongoing ambulance shortage in the country. According to a report from Scripps News Service, many hospitals and medical service districts are as much as five years out waiting for new ambulances. One of the biggest reasons, it seems, is that the chassis typically reserved for the emergency vehicles were instead used for pickup trucks by companies such as Ford and General Motors during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Carbon County and MHCC, it seems, are ahead of the game with the ambulance in question expected as soon as early 2024. Irene Archibald, the county representative for the South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Services (SCWEMS) Joint Powers Board, told the commissioners that SCWEMS was looking at late 2024 for a replacement ambulance.

“They keep us informed when we’re a little bit further up the list,” said Archibald.

A motion to wave the county procurement policy contingent upon answers from the State of Wyoming was passed unanimously.

The next meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners will be at 9 a.m. on October 3 at the Carbon Building - Courthouse Annex in Rawlins.