McGehee Fire & Ambulance
901 Hwy. 278 E.
870-222-3160 Office
Dial 911 for emergencies

 

The McGehee Fire Department is a full time department with a property protection class rating of "6". This rating allows
fire insurance rates to be lower for our community.

The Fire Department is responsible for Rescue/Hazmat Operations for our community. The Jaws of Life and other rescue
tools are housed on a 1985 pumper truck that holds 750 gallons of water. We also have an off-road Brush/Rescue Truck
that allows easier access to areas a pumper truck cannot go.

Arkansas Children's Hospital provided McGehee Fire Department with a Fire Safety House to be used to teach children
about Fire Safety. This Fire Safety House is available to other Fire Departments and is toured by over 1200 children
annually. To make arrangements for use call 870-222-6550.

 

McGehee Fire & Ambulance operates two Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances and two Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances. All ambulances are stocked with up to date equipment and supplies in order to provide the most advanced
pre-hospital care available for our community.

Funding for the Ambulance Service is subsidized by the County as well as by ambulance memberships.
A family membership is $50.00 per year, and the individual rate is $40.00 per year. The McGehee Fire & Ambulance
is a Medicare and State of Arkansas Medicaid provider.

The Billing Department is located in the McGehee Municipal Complex.

 

Staff Job Functions

Eddie Allen, Fire Chief / Paramedic - Performs administrative duties by directing and evaluating the operations of the Fire Department and Ambulance Service. He is responsible for developing and maintaining the annual budget and implementing policies and procedures for the department. He is a Certified Training Officer for the Arkansas Fire Academy and is responsible for the department training, fire investigations, fire prevention and public education. He is also responsible for the safety and well being of the entire department. Eddie has been a full-time firefighter since 1987, becoming Fire Chief in 1995. He became an EMT in 1992 and a Paramedic in 2002.

Pete Hocking, Captain / EMT - Specializes in fire inspections and prevention. He is responsible for enforcement of local
and state fire safety codes. He is also a Certified Training Officer for the Arkansas Fire Academy. Pete started as a
part-time firefighter in 1989 and became an EMT in 1993. He became a full-time Firefighter/EMT for McGehee in 1995.

Kristyl Johnson, Paramedic - Assists the Fire Chief in coordinating the functions of the Ambulance Service.
Responsible for the management of controlled drugs and assuring that all ambulances are supplied and maintained according to State Health Regulations. She is also responsible for the safety and well being of the entire department. Kristyl started as a part-time EMT in 1993 and became a Paramedic in 1996. She became a full-time Paramedic for McGehee in 2000.

Robbie Doherty, Assistant Chief / EMT - Assists the Fire Chief in coordinating the functions of the Fire Department.
Responsible for maintaining the Department in the absence of the Chief. Robbie started as a part-time firefighter in 1985
and became an EMT in 1993. He became a full-time Firefighter / EMT in 2001.

Torrie McCarthy, Paramedic /Firefighter/ Billing Clerk - Responsible for maintaining accurate billing records and filing insurance for the Ambulance Service. Responsibilities include the safety and well being of the entire department. Torrie started as a part-time EMT in 2000 and became a Paramedic in 2002. She became the Billing Clerk in 2002.
She is our HIPAA Privacy Officer.

Ricky Terry, Paramedic / Firefighter - He has been with the Fire & Ambulance department since 2004. He is also the
Desha County Office of Emergency Services Co-ordinator.

Shane Pruitt, Paramedic/ Firefighter - Shane returned to the department in March 2008.

Rochelle Poyner, Secretary - Responsible for accounts receivable, collections, and memberships of the Ambulance office. She has been employed since 1997.

Statistics

In 2001, McGehee Fire & Ambulance responded to over 1250 calls for emergency services. The Department averages
100 calls per month for emergency fire and medical services.

Employment

All employees must be 21 years of age, possess a high school diploma or GED, have a valid driver's license, no criminal
history and be drug free.

Firefighters receive annual training through the department by CTO's of The Arkansas Fire Academy and/or by attending
the Arkansas Fire Academy in Camden, AR. EMT's and Paramedics receive annual training through continuous education courses and by attending refresher courses at Great Rivers Vo-Tech School in Dermott, AR. McGehee Fire & Ambulance employees work an average of 72 hours per week. 48 hours on duty and 48 hours off duty. Duty time consists of responding
to emergency calls, training, vehicle and station maintenance and performing in-service company inspections.

 

PHI Notice

McGehee Fire & Ambulance
Notice of Privacy Practices Effective
April 14, 2003

Purpose of this Notice: McGehee Fire & Ambulance Service (MFD) is required by law to maintain the privacy of certain confidential health care information, known as Protected Health Information or PHI, and to provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI. This notice describes your legal rights, advises you of our privacy practices, and lets you know how MFD is permitted to use and disclose PHI about you. MFD is also required to abide by the terms of the version of this Notice currently in effect. In most situations we may use this information as described in the Notice without your permission, but there are some situations where we may use it only after we obtain your written authorization, if we are required by law to do so.

Uses and Disclosures of PHI: MFD may use PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations, in most cases without your written permission. Examples of our use of your PHI:

Treatment This includes such things as obtaining verbal and written information about your medical condition and treatment from you as well as from others, such as doctors and nurses who give orders to allow us to provide treatment to you. We may give your PHI to other health care providers involved in your treatment, and may transfer your PHI via radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center as well as providing the hospital with a copy of the written record we create in the course of providing you with treatment and transport.

Payment This includes any activities we must undertake in order to get reimburse for the services we provide to you, including such things as submitting bills to insurance companies, making medical necessity determinations and collecting outstanding accounts.

Health Care Operations This includes quality assurance activities, licensing, and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our standards of care and follow established policies and procedures, as well as certain other management functions.

Reminders for Scheduled Transports and Information on Other Services We may also contact you to provide you with a reminder of any scheduled appointments for non-emergency ambulance and medical transportation, or to provide information about other services we render.

Uses and Disclosure of PHI Without Your Authorization: MFD is permitted to use PHI without your written authorization, or opportunity to object in certain situation, including:

-For MFD's use in treating you or in obtaining payment for services provided to you or in other health care operations, -For the treatment activities of another health care provider;
-To another health care provider or entity for the payment activities of the provider or entity that receives the information (such as your hospital or insurance company);
-To another health care provider (such as the hospital to which you are transported) for the health care operations activities of the entity that receives the information as long as the entity receiving the information has or has had a relationship with your and the PHI pertains to that relationship;
-For health care fraud and abuse detection or for activities related to compliance with the law;
-To a family member, other relative, or close personal friend or other individual involved in your care if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so or if we give you an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection, and in certain other circumstances where we are unable to obtain your agreement and believe the disclosure is in your best interest;
-To a public health authority in certain situations as required by law (such as to report abuse, neglect or domestic violence, or to notify a person about exposure to a possible communicable disease):
-For health oversight activities including audits or government investigations, inspections, disciplinary proceedings, and other administrative judicial actions undertaken by the government (or their contractors) by law to oversee the health care system;
-For judicial and administrative proceedings as required by a court or administrative order, or in some cases in response to a subpoena or other legal process;
-For law enforcement activities in limited situations, such as when there is a warrant for the request, or when the information is needed to locate a suspect or stop a crime;
-For military, national defense and security and other special government functions;
-To avert a serious threat to the health and safety of a person or the public at large;
-For worker's compensation purposes, and in compliance with worker's compensation laws;
-To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors for identifying a deceased person, determining cause of death, or carrying on their duties as authorized by law; -If you are an organ donor, we may release health information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate organ donation and transplantation;
-For research projects, but this will be subject to strict oversight and approvals and health information will be release only when there is minimal risk to your privacy and adequate safeguards are in place in accordance with the law;
-We may use or disclose health information about you in a way that does not personally identity you or reveal who you are.
Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed above will only be made with your written authorization, (authorization must specifically identify the information we seek to use or disclose, as well as when and how we seek to use or disclose it).
You may revoke your authorization at any time, in writing, except to the extent that we have already used or disclosed medical information in reliance on that authorization.

Patients Rights: As a patient, you have a number of rights with respect to the protection of your PHI, including: The right to access, copy or inspect your PHI. This means you may inspect and copy most of the medical information about you that we maintain. We will normally provide you with access to this information within 30 days of your request. We may also charge you a reasonable fee for you to copy any medical information that you have the right to access. In limited circumstances, we may deny you access to your medical information, and you may appeal certain types of denials. We have available forms to request access to your PHI and we will provide a written response if we deny you access and let you know your appeal rights. You also have the right to receive confidential communications of your PHI. If you wish to inspect and copy your medical information, you should contact our privacy officer.

The right to amend your PHI. You have the right to ask us to amend written medical information that we may have about you. We will generally amend your information within 60 days of your request and will notify you when we have amended the information. We are permitted by law to deny your request to amend your medical information only in certain circumstances, like when we believe the information you have asked us to amend is correct. If you wish to request that we amend the medical information that we have about you, you should contact our privacy officer.

The right to request an accounting. You may request an accounting from us of certain disclosures of your medical information that we have made in the six years prior to the date of your request. We are not required to give you an accounting of information we have used or disclosed for purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations, or when we share your health information with our business associates. We are also not required to give you an accounting or our uses of PHI for which you have already given us written authorization. If you wish to request an accounting, contact our privacy officer.

Internet, Electronic Mail and the Right to Obtain Copy of Paper Notice on Request. If we maintain a web site, we will prominently post a copy of this Notice on our web site. If you allow us, we will forward you this Notice by electronic mail instead of on paper and you may always request a paper copy of the Notice.

Revisions to the Notice: MFD reserves the right to change the terms of this Notice at any time, and the changes will be effective immediately and will apply to all PHI that we maintain. Any material changes to the Notice will be promptly posted in our facilities and posted to our web site, if we maintain one. You can get a copy of the latest version of this Notice by contacting our privacy officer.

Your Legal Rights and Complaints: You also have the right to complain to us, or the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint with us or to the government. Should you have any questions, comments or complaints, you may direct all inquires to the privacy officer listed at the end of this Notice.

Torrie McCarthy, NREMT-P / Privacy Officer
PO Box 612
McGehee AR 71654
870-222-3160

Effective date of Notice: April 14, 2003