Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Enloe Donates Ambulance

Seneca Healthcare District Chief Operating Officer Brady Haynes inspects the ambulance his organization received as a donation from Enloe Health.

Imagine living in a large geographical area with approximately 35,000 people in the summer, but with a very limited ambulance service. That was the condition in the Lake Almanor Basin — a region surrounding Lake Almanor, with Chester as its largest population base and economic center — about 70 miles northeast of Chico.

Seneca Healthcare District, a small but vital hospital in Chester that serves the communities around the lake, faced this problem. The hospital relinquished ambulance service to the Chester Fire Department in the early 2000s. The Chester agency had struggled with maintaining ambulance services financially, due to low “run” volume — meaning few reimbursable service trips. Things looked dire, and it appeared the town of Chester might have no ambulance service at all.

Compounding this were two unsuccessful tax measures on the ballot — which, if successful, may have generated much-needed revenues for operating ambulances.

“Peninsula Fire (based in the community of Lake Almanor, about 10 miles from Seneca) and others had been stepping in and providing ambulance services all the way around the lake,” said Judy Cline, Seneca’s Chief Nursing Officer. “But they were short on actual ambulances.”

Enloe Health was able to help — thanks to Cline’s efforts and an extra ambulance Enloe had on hand. Now that ambulance belongs to Seneca and the basin’s residents — about 3,500 year-round — can feel better about their emergency health coverage.

Perfect Timing

Cline has been at Seneca since 2022. Before that, she was at Enloe Health — serving as a registered nurse for 35 years, even holding the position of FlightCare’s Chief Flight Nurse.

“I have a lot of experience in the emergency services realm,” Cline said, “and I have a lot of friends at Enloe.”

The critical absence of ambulance service in the Chester area troubled her. Cline contacted Jolene Francis, Enloe Health’s Vice President of Philanthropy & Communications, for help.

“We approached Jolene because I knew Enloe was taking over everything under Butte County EMS,” Cline said. “We asked her, ‘Do you have any ambulances in the fleet that would be retiring anytime soon?’”

Enloe did, and leadership was pleased to donate the unit to Seneca. The official “delivery” took place June 19. Enloe assisted with repainting the outside, completing required inspections and transferring the title.

“Judy’s request was well-timed, as we were just completing the integration of First Responder into the Enloe Health organization,” Francis said, referring to the previously independent Chico ambulance company. Butte County EMS — which Enloe operates — purchased the assets of First Responder when that company closed.

“As Butte County EMS is an accredited program, we have strict requirements regarding our equipment that other programs are not required to meet,” she said. “That meant that we periodically rotate vehicles out of our program and sell them.

“However, based on our long-term working relationship with Seneca Hospital, it made sense to donate one of these vehicles to help them meet their immediate need.”

Butte County EMS had no more use for this particular ambulance. Its high mileage meant its service days were over, under accreditation restrictions. However, Seneca faced no such restrictions and the donated unit was a good fit.

“We worked with Jenny Humphries (Enloe’s Director of Emergency Medical Services and Chief Flight Nurse) and Bob Hall (Enloe’s Ambulance Manager) and came up with an ambulance,” Cline recalled. “It was older, but in excellent condition.”

Seneca owns the ambulance but leases it for $1 to Peninsula Fire, which added to its fleet. It’s available to the community should one unit require maintenance or is needed for interfacility transfers of patients to other hospitals.

Peninsula Fire has coincidentally ordered an additional ambulance of its own. Delivery is scheduled for late fall. “They can add it to their fleet of vehicles until their new ambulance arrives,” Cline said, “or as long as they need it, really.”