Greg Pulver learned how to save lives 15 years ago, but it was only this month that the private ambulance company manager became a "Star of Life."
Pulver, Chehalis, was awarded for his role in helping turn around American Medical Response's Lewis County operations during troubles the company faced last year.
He traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this month to accept the "Star of Life" award, one of about 115 of the awards given out nationwide by the American Ambulance Association.
"It was a humbling experience," said Pulver.
A company worker called it a career culmination.
"The people that are recognized for this award are really the cream of the crop," said Amanda Olsen, of the company's Portland offices.
Pulver, 34, manages about 20 employees for AMR's Lewis County operations. Nationwide, the Colorado-based company has about 19,000 employees.
AMR is based out of a metal-sided orange and brown building on Centralia's South Tower Avenue near the railroad viaduct.
Its three Lewis County paramedic units respond to 911 calls, transport patients between medical facilities, and wait on standby at sporting events and other public gatherings.
About a year ago, the local branch of the company was in negotiations for a renewal of local contracts with fire departments and districts, but was facing trouble.
"We had some management decisions that created a destabilization in AMR's system in Lewis County," said Pulver.
The company had tried to make changes in service that weren't meeting local needs, said Pulver. Longtime employees were becoming disgruntled and leaving for other jobs, he added.
A state AMR executive who had roots in Lewis County's emergency system came on board locally in April of 2002 to help straighten things out, said Pulver, who at that time was a paramedic for AMR in Lewis County.
His job soon expanded.
"I stepped forth at that time last May and took the leadership role as an interim supervisor," said Pulver, promoted to full-time operations supervisor in November. "We got things back on track in short order."
AMR's parent company, Laidlaw, is under bankruptcy proceedings, but that isn't affecting the subsidiary's ambulance operations, said Pulver.
"AMR was a sound company when everything transpired. We have remained a sound operation," he said.
Pulver received the "Star of Life" award for stepping forward when the company needed help, said Randy Strozyk, vice president for AMR in Washington, and a former supervisor for AMR's predecessor in Lewis County in the late 1980s.
"(Pulver) dedicated himself 150 percent to our work and responsibility to the community," Strozyk said.
Pulver, a soft-spoken man who wears a mustache and a white uniform with a dark tie on the job, loosens up in his spare time to compete in demolition derbies.
A 1986 graduate of W.F. West High School in Chehalis, Pulver received his emergency medical technician training in the U.S. Air Force.
After leaving the military, he joined Lewis County Fire District 6, serving rural Chehalis. He still volunteers for District 6 when he's off duty from AMR.
Although he's supervisor, Pulver occasionally responds to emergency calls for AMR.
"I still enjoy running calls very much," he said.
AMR operates in cooperation with many local fire departments, which typically have some of their own emergency vehicles, but are supplemented by AMR's resources, Pulver said.
It can cost from $90 to $100 an hour in wages and mechanical costs to keep an ambulance on standby, meaning that most local fire departments couldn't provide enough service for their own needs, he said.
"The cost would be astronomical," he said.
Last year, AMR set up an unusual contract with the Centralia Fire Department and Lewis County Fire District 12, which serves rural Centralia.
As part of a cooperative effort with the two public agencies, AMR pays $125,000 a year to the two entities. This ensures that if AMR can't keep up with the demand for ambulances around the county at any particular time, Centralia Fire Department and District 12 will step in to help, said Pulver.
That arrangement helped improve AMR's service, and "get the train back on track" last year, said Strozyk, who came down and directly handled negotiations last year.
"We wanted to be able to deal with system overload at peak times," he said.
When there is heavy demand for AMR's services, aid crews from Centralia and District 12 could go as far away as Oakville to help out, Strozyk said.
"It's a prime example of public-private partnership," he said.
AMR's Lewis County operations were started in 1982 by what was then St. Helen Hospital in Chehalis, said Strozyk, and eventually expanded to other Providence hospitals.
After several ownership changes, it was bought by AMR about five years ago, said Pulver.
The company's ambulance service dovetails nicely with Lewis County's complex mix of city fire departments and more than a dozen independent fire districts scattered across the county, Strozyk said.
AMR responds to 911 calls but doesn't receive any payment unless the patient is actually transported, Pulver said.
Most of the company's contracts are in north and west Lewis County. South Lewis County is served by its own cooperative ambulance organization. AMR still steps in to help occasionally, but that role was diminished after the troubles the company had last year, Pulver said.
AMR also transports patients from Morton General Hospital, but doesn't do much for 911 calls in East Lewis County. Fire districts in that part of the county handle those duties, Pulver said.
His company is looking at expansion into East Lewis County, but only if it can be done in a way that doesn't harm public emergency response capacity and service, he said.
The company also has units on standby at public gatherings, ranging from the Southwest Washington Fair to a performance by Thomas the Tank Engine.
Pulver doesn't spend his entire day in the office, a windowless room lit by a flickering fluorescent light.
On a recent weekday morning, he drove to Chehalis to check in with an employee who was supervising a Department of Natural Resources physical fitness test at the W.F. West football stadium.
After a few quick calls to his counterpart in Thurston County, he went by a service station in Centralia to check on the status of a few of the company's ambulances.
"I'm still learning a lot of the ropes," he said.
His company is also looking to move to a new location in Centralia closer to the freeway and the hospital.
He said he tries to keep focused on supporting employees and caring for those who need his company's services.
"Our main focus of employees here is taking care of people on the streets that need medical attention," he said.
Brian Mittge covers politics, the environment and Lewis County government for The Chronicle. He may be reached by e-mail at bmittge@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8237.
