EMS chief: Rescue probe didn't include interview of member said to have urged use of expired supplies

AUGUSTA, Maine - The director of Maine Emergency Medical Services told The Lebanon Voice today that the investigation into whether Lebanon Fire and Rescue personnel were told to use expired ambulance supplies was completed without speaking to the named department staffer who was alleged to have written the interoffice memo authorizing the directive.

"If they have internal issues on the way they stock their ambulance, that would not be our purview," said Maine EMS Director Shaun St. Germain, referring to what appears to be an interoffice directive from a Lebanon Fire and Rescue staffer to all department personnel sent at 7:28 p.m. on July 6.

A letter from an individual claiming to be a Lebanon Fire and Rescue member concerned with the purported directive was sent to St. Germain along with a copy of the interoffice memo in question. The letter was also sent to The Lebanon Voice.

St. Germain added that a recent inspection of Lebanon ambulances revealed no expired supplies.

Maine EMS investigator Alan Leo conducted the investigation and concluded after speaking with "department leadership" there were no grounds for further action, St. Germain asserted.

"There was nothing to go on beyond the anonymous letter, there was no one to talk to," St. Germain said earlier, adding investigators did, however, speak to the chief, Dan Meehan.

Asked why he didn't speak to the named staffer who allegedly wrote the email, St. Germain replied "Those are internal issues we wouldn't investigate."

He also added that anything alleged in the anonymous letter was not confirmed when ambulances were checked as part of an annual evaluation.

"What was alleged in that memo as far as supplies being expired was not the case in our inspections," St. Germain added.

The anonymous letter had contained what it had purported to be an interoffice memo in which a member of the department apparently notes, "Yes we are very low on supplies at this time, so please be patient," later urging staff to go ahead and use expired supplies.

"Also being that we are so low for now I'm asking you to please use the supplies we have some have expired they are still good if the packaging is OK (quote is verbatim, no punctuation)," the note said.

St. Germain said before the probe began that the use of expired supplies, while concerning, likely wouldn't result in any drastic or punitive action.

"We wouldn't take an ambulance out of service over it, but we would advise them not to use expired supplies," St. Germain said at the time.

A production coordinator at Rose Medical, a Michigan medical device manufacturing company, said medical supplies that have expiration dates are normally those that are sterilized and rely on gases inside the packaging to keep them sterile.

"When those gases expire, they (the supplies) are no longer sterile whether the packaging is intact or not," Mary Holwerda said.

The Lebanon Voice attempted to contact Meehan for comment on this story.