“The process is still ongoing, and I cannot comment until the process is completed,” said Beavercreek Township Administrator Alex Zaharieff.
The township also provides fire and EMS service to the city of Beavercreek.
The firefighters responded to a call at a home on Terrace Glen Court on March 12. When they arrived they found an 85-year-old male unresponsive on the floor. The patient was transported to Soin Medical Center for treatment and later died. It is unclear when his death occurred.
More than a month after the patient was taken to the hospital, a Kettering Health Network Coordinator, Meredith Lawhorn, asked the township to review the response to the call in an email dated April 21.
Lawhorn states the patient was taken to the hospital on a backboard for chest compressions only and C-collar (cervical collar) was not placed on the patient.
“The patient should have been fully immobilized due to an altered mental status and the patient’s mechanism,” Lawhorn wrote.
The patient suffered a neck injury that was discovered by the hospital through x-rays, according to the township discipline records.
The township issued the reprimands against the firefighters and Mallonee after determining they violated the Greater Miami Valley EMS Council’s standing orders.
Fugate had a similar violation documented on Sept. 21, 2014, according to township records. He was given a written warning after giving a patient twice the maximum dose of pain medication. The patient was unharmed, according to township records. A third volition of GMVEMSC Standing Orders could result in a suspension recommendation, according to the most recent disciplinary record.
The remaining firefighters who were disciplined did not have a history of similar incidents according to township records.
The firefighters filed a grievance through their union, Beavercreek Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 2857, challenging the disciplinary measures taken by the township.
In the grievance, the union alleges the township violated its contract with IAFF Local 2857 which states regular employees, who have completed probation, will not be disciplined or discharged without just cause or except for rule violations.
In the grievance, Scott Gladney, a union representative, characterized the way the township issued the discipline as “unethical, irresponsible and unprofessional.”
“…if Management would have taken the time to properly investigate this incident instead of blindly reacting to an e-mail from the EMS at Soin Medical Center and then issuing blanket (and incorrect) discipline,” the issue would be a moot point, according to the grievance Gladney filed.
The union asks the township to rescind the discipline and remove it from the employees’ records in the grievance.
Beavercreek Township Fire Chief David VandenBos determined the discipline issued was justified and denied the grievance in a June 2 letter.
A little over a month later the township administrator, Zaharieff, also denied the grievance, in a letter dated July 6, after consulting with Dr. David Romano, the medical director, about the call. Romano’s concerns included the fact that cervical spine immobilization is a basic standard of care and the lack of this basic standard of care potentially could have caused significant harm to the patient. Romano and Zaharieff determined the spinal immobilization protocol was not followed by the fire department personnel.
Ten days after the letter from the township administrator was issued, the fire department personnel requested mediation. On Aug. 27, an answer to the meditation was issued. Less than a week later, the answer was appealed to the township trustees. The trustees approved a motion,on Sept. 14, that upheld the disciplinary action.
The union could take the case to an arbitrator.
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