County taking medical director proposals

Mar. 14—Cumberland County is seeking applications for a medical director for its emergency medical services.

The emergency services committee of the Cumberland County Commission voted to advertise for applicants during a discussion of its current agreement with local surgeon Dr. Mark Fox, who has served as medical director for many years.

"With you being the director of EMS, do you feel that, in fairness, we should open this up to other medical professionals and see if anybody is interested?" Kyle Davis, 2nd District commissioner, asked EMS Director Chris Miller.

Miller said, "I don't see any harm in it."

Davis said taking applications for the position would help the county select the best choice for the post, adding, "I'm not saying it wouldn't be Dr. Fox. I'm just saying we've got choices."

Davis recommended Foster and Miller negotiate the final details of a contract with a recommended medical director.

"You meet with the people who are interested and, whoever your pick is, take it to the mayor," Davis told Miller. "Once the mayor approves it, it needs to come back for approval."

Terry Lowe, 5th District commissioner, moved to post the medical director job, with recommendations and final contract negotiations to be worked out by Foster and Miller and then brought back to commissioners for approval, supported by Wendell Wilson, 6th District commissioner. The motion was unanimously approved.

The committee had been scheduled to discuss its agreement with Fox, who is currently considered a part-time county employee.

Fox said he didn't remember when he went from a contracted employee to a part-time employee, but said he had started discussions to return the position to contracted status.

"It offers no additional protection to me or the county," Fox said of his part-time position.

County Attorney Philip Burnett advised it would be better for the position to be a contracted position. He drafted a contract similar to one found on the state's website.

Fox said the proposed contract had been modeled after a contract used by the Collierville, TN, fire and rescue department and included things he said would disqualify him.

"It's very unique to their service," Fox said.

As an example, the contract specifies the medical director would be board-certified in emergency medicine.

"I'm not," Fox said. "I'm a board-certified surgeon. I would not comply with that."

He said the the contract also called on the medical director to develop a wellness program for the EMS department employees.

"I'm not an exercise physiologist. I would not be able to set up a wellness program. There's a lot of tenants in this contract that have been lifted from that template," Fox said.

The contract also calls for Fox to provide general liability insurance. Fox is covered through his employer, Covenant Health, and said the county would not be an additional beneficiary of that policy.

"That's simply not going to happen," Fox said.

Instead, the county could purchase an additional malpractice professional liability policy for the medical director, he said.

Fox offered another example contract that he said was more general and also his current scope of work.

"I think it's a fine document," Fox said of the current agreement. "It spells out my responsibilities and the county responsibilities. It's got everything in there except a monthly stipend amount."

Currently, Fox is paid $124.75 every two weeks. He has asked for an increase to $200 every two weeks.

That agreement states that the medical director provides quality improvement reviews, advice regarding EMS and medical issues, review patient encounter forms, respond to calls for mutual aid to outside jurisdictions, advise first responder programs, and respond to incident scenes to provide care as requested.

Burnett told the committee he was not in favor of the agreement currently in place.

"You've got to decide how much you want from your medical director," Burnett said of the contract example sent out. "There's some very basic stuff the medical director needs to provide. There's a long list of items that can come and go.

"But right now, we're an easy target with this agreement. This agreement hasn't been re-approved so, as we speak, we don't have an agreement ... There's all kinds of liability issues in this agreement."

The county published a public notice advertising the medical director position in the Tuesday edition of the Crossville Chronicle on page 15 of The Scene.

Heather Mullinix is editor of the Crossville Chronicle. She covers schools and education in Cumberland County. She may be reached at hmullinix@crossville-chronicle.com.