NEW KENT — New Kent’s fire and rescue service faces a cost hike due to a federal mandate that makes emergency agencies responsible for supplying medication drug kits.
Fire-Rescue Chief Rick Opett told the New Kent Board of Supervisors on Aug. 22 that the drug boxes carried in ambulances have been controlled by the hospitals and the Old Dominion EMS Alliance for the last 40 years.
“What happened over the years is when we would open those drug boxes and we would transport to the hospital, we would report that back to the hospital pharmacies and they would give us a new box … we did not pay anything for that,” Opett said.
However, the Food and Drug Administration overhauled the program under the FDA Drug Supply Chain and Security Act of 2013, which will be implemented on Nov. 27 this year.
The legislation called for a closer tracking of the drugs used by EMS teams.
Opett said the new law impacts EMS agencies across the nation. “We pretty much have to become our own pharmacy within New Kent,” Opett said. Virginia is one of the few states that still has a regional drug box system.
“The hospitals had the choice to continue the program but they have chosen not to. They are putting that down on the localities,” Opett said.
Opett said it would cost $56,000 for the New Kent Fire-Rescue pharmacy to be compliant with the FDA regulatory change requirement by the November deadline. The money will purchase an automated drug dispensing system that will track narcotics and keep an inventory. The county has identified two secure dispensing stations.
The additional annual maintenance cost for drug use, tracking and replacement of drugs will be about $24,000 in the fast-growing county, Opett estimated.
“With a 25% increase in call volume on the EMS side that may not go down. It may actually go up,” Opett said.
Opett said reprioritizing the EMS department’s Capital Improvement Plan meant no request to the board for extra money on Aug. 22 but that the county will see “a very large increase for EMS supplies” in the future.
The EMS department is postponing the replacement of CPR equipment to meet the initial costs associated with the directive.
David Macaulay, Davidmacaulayva@gmail.com
