Written by Thomas Adams, President | 10 January 2012

It is the first of the year and with that it is time to renew your membership with the Kentucky Ambulance Providers Association. For those of you who are not members of the Association, it is the time of the year we formally invite you to join us.

This New Year brings many issues that will directly and indirectly affect the ability of local Ambulance Services like you and I to provide the Citizens of the Commonwealth with quality ambulance service. As a local Service it is difficult to keep up with the issues, from legislation to regulations, and have a voice in what happens. It is also virtually impossible as a single agency to have an impact on these issues.

That is where the Kentucky Ambulance Providers Association comes in play, bringing all Providers together into one strong group: one voice for the needs of the Ambulance Service Providers from one end of the Commonwealth to the other. A voice that represents and watches out for those of use who do our very best every day to care for those people who call upon us, expecting us to be there without exception.

KAPA works hard to keep track of what is happening at not only the state but the federal level. Whether it is with the help of our lobbyist in Frankfort, one of our committees, or thru visits to Washington D.C. to talk face-to-face with our elected representatives.

This year KAPA is striving to improve communications with the provider community all over Kentucky. First by looking at our organization, working to make it more accessible to each of you. Then, by improving the ways we bring KAPA to you to hear your concerns and needs. Our goal is for KAPA to listen to you and work throughout all aspects of federal, state and local government to be one strong voice for positive change to the ambulance service community. Through the promotion of education, we will strive to help produce the very best trained EMS community that any state has to offer.

Having said this is one thing; to archive it will take all of us, from the smallest to the largest ambulance service, working in one voice for a common goal.

Today I invite you to become part of that voice, part of the largest organization of ambulance service providers in this fine Commonwealth. An organization dedicated to representing and promoting ambulance service in every community in Kentucky.

Click here to download a membership form

Click here to pay your membership dues on-line

Written by John Hultgren | 05 January 2012

Written by John Hultgren | 16 November 2011

KAPA Regions ‘restructuring’ proposed
by Tom Adams, President

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[Please see the Fall edition of "The Provider" newsletter for a map of the proposed restructuring.]

 

The core of KAPA’s mission is to represent and support all of the providers in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  This is not an easy task with a state that can take 7 hours just to drive across.

Provider issues on one end of the Commonwealth many times are far different than those of providers on the other end of the state.

To take on this task the KAPA Founders used the 16 ADD districts that were already in place as a way to divide the Commonwealth. Each district was to elect one representative to sit on the board to help address the concerns not only at the state level but at the regional level that might be unique to that region. Add to those 16 board members 5 at-large board members to represent the Providers of the Commonwealth as a whole, you now have the make-up of the current KAPA board of directors.

Although it has worked for many years, nothing is perfect. Thru the years we have seen board members that, because of sickness or local service issues, have not been able to be active or attend meetings, leaving a region without their voice on the board. We have had times that we could not find a representative to elect in a region to sit on the board.

From the time I was first elected to the KAPA board there have been conversations about how to achieve a complete and fair representation of the Providers that KAPA is committed to represent. I have heard talk of restructuring the board or restructuring the districts, and many good ideas have been tossed back and forth. Up to now there has not been an opportunity to actually look at changes that would provide that consistent representation across the state, making KAPA stronger and giving the Provider an even louder voice.

The Executive Board has sat down to look at and study many of these ideas. I believe we have now come up with a plan that will accomplish what all providers across the state expect from KAPA.

We will bring to the Board of Directors at the January meeting a proposal that will amend and change the by-laws. This proposal changes the district breakdown from 16 regions to 6 regions and will increase representation in each to 3 elected board members. That will bring the Board of directors from 16 to 18 regional representatives. Leaving the 5 at-large positions the same, the board total move from 21 to 23.

There are a number of positive impacts that come from these changes, so let me share just a couple.

With 3 board representatives from each region, the likelihood that at least one of the elected members being able to make a meeting is greatly increased. This helps to improve representation of all regions at each meeting, giving voice to all parts of the Commonwealth.

This will also allow the board to rotate its meetings across the state, having a meeting in every region over a two year period. You may ask why that is so important. As KAPA works to achieve its goals of representing all Providers we need to hear from those that have ideas and concerns. It is not practical to expect every Provider from western Kentucky to drive to eastern Kentucky to get to address the board in a meeting. This will make membership access to the full board much easier.

The members of the board from each region will be asked to come together as a team and hold a regional meeting at least once a year. The goal again is to bring the Providers that they represent together to hear their concerns and challenges so that they might bring to the full board from their respective regions the concerns they hear, many unique but just as important.

During these meetings it will also allow us to bring to the Providers information and show them that KAPA truly is here to support and represent them.

As KAPA changes we improve, growing stronger and louder as a voice for the Providers of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The end result, providing the very best prehospital care in all of Kentucky.

Written by John Hultgren | 15 November 2011

The Kentucky Ambulance Providers Association newsletter returns!

"The Siren" was last published in early 2003. Please enjoy our new newsletter, "The Provider" with our Fall 2011 edition.