Fairfield Ems Cleared Of Misconduct Charges

Sat., Aug. 12, 2000

By Trinity Hartman trinityh@spokesman.com

State investigators have cleared Spokane County Fire District 2’s emergency medical service of misconduct charges alleged by a Fairfield city council member.

After investigating Fairfield city council member Gerry McLean’s complaints about Fire District 2’s EMS, the state Department of Health found “insufficient information to warrant informal or formal action on the allegations,” according to a letter signed by Jack Cvitanovic, area manager for EMS licensing and certification for the state health department.

The letter states that McLean had accused the fire district’s EMS of misrepresenting its response times, providing false documents for billing and providing inappropriate care to patients, along with other acts of misconduct.

McLean has been involved in a long-running dispute with the fire district for several years. From 1993 until late last year, Fairfield operated its own fire department and McLean’s husband, Jerry McLean, was the town’s fire chief. She dissented when the city council voted to disband the town’s fire department and join Fire District 2.

McLean, in a short telephone conversation, stated that the letter from the state had misrepresented her complaints.

She would not elaborate.

McLean said she had already written a letter to Cvitanovic.

“I’m contesting the whole thing,” she said.

After investigating McLean’s complaints, Cvitanovic’s letter said the only violation found by the state agency was that the fire district’s EMS director, Kenneth Southwell, does not meet certification requirements. A fire district official said Southwell has all medical training needed for the job, but does not have the necessary high school diploma, which was not a requirment when Southwell was originally certified.

Many Fire District 2 commissioners and other officials are involved in harvest and could not be reached for comment. Only Commissioner Steve Primmer responded to a request for an interview and he declined to comment, saying he had not yet seen a copy of the state’s letter to McLean.

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