Dr. Tim Pieh, left, listens Jan. 18 as Chip Getchell, a critical care paramedic and Delta Ambulance’s clinical quality manager, tells him about a new portable ventilator that will be used for training at the Delta Ambulance office in Waterville.e. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

AUGUSTA — Kennebec County’s MD3 program, a one-of-its-kind initiative in Maine that brings doctors along with first responders to high-impact scenes, could be among the cuts made during county budget discussions this spring.

Dr. Tim Pieh chats with first responders during a Jan. 18 meeting at the Clinton Fire and Rescue station. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

The program was launched in December 2023 using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act — a $1.9 trillion pandemic-era federal grant package for local governments across the country. Officials agreed last spring to fund the pilot program with ARPA funds through September and with county funds through the end of the year.

But with new ARPA funding opportunities completely drying up by the end of 2024, the $221,500 program has been left without a funding source, unless county officials agree to use taxpayer money. During Wednesday’s Kennebec County Budget Committee meeting, some officials said MD3 could be on the chopping block for that reason.

“I am concerned that if we set ourselves up for something we cannot afford, that if this grant money on a federal or state or any level does not show up, we’re going to be in a really tough position on this committee to say, ‘How do we bail them out? We need it now,'” Ashley Sennett, a budget committee member and Albion’s town administrator, said.

Hallowell Mayor George Lapointe — in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting but not a member of the committee — also argued against county funding for the program.

“The benefits of the program are great, but the fiscal impact is also great,” Lapointe said. “I’m looking through the numbers, and $220,000 (for MD3) — and Hallowell’s increase in the budget is $50,000. That’s two cents on the mill (rate) in Hallowell. The schools are following behind and the schools and the county now take up 50% of our budget.”

In 2024, MD3 doctors responded to 211 calls for service in Kennebec County, during which they provided life-saving care, and spent more than 200 hours educating paramedics and other first responders on techniques and diagnostic strategies, MD3 overseer Dr. Tim Pieh said Wednesday.

Those calls have ranged from diabetic comas to vehicle crashes to cardiac arrest — and having a doctor on scene can even reduce the number of future scenes paramedics are called to, MD3 physicians have said.

Budget committee member and Readfield Select Board Chair Kathryn Mills Woodsum said she was unsure whether the program was “a county program or a big city program” — given most of MD3’s calls came from population centers like Augusta, Gardiner and Waterville.

County Emergency Management Director Angela Molino — under whom the MD3 program operates — said residents are more likely to be socially vulnerable in the county’s bigger cities, and that often correlates to more need for paramedic response. Pieh also said the calls largely reflected the population density of the county, with some outliers in places like China and Belgrade, which had more calls than many other smaller towns.

Pieh said the holistic impact of having a doctor at many of their calls is difficult to measure, partially because the doctor often corrects — and then teaches — in-the-moment decision-making processes to the paramedics.

MD3 doctors taught 748 students in 2024, Pieh said — making a long-lasting impact on paramedics across the county who now have a better sense of how to handle certain emergency situations. The doctors have also trained paramedics on how to handle high-casualty situations — a scene with more severe injuries than the nearby departments can handle at once.

“I can measure how many times one of my docs intervened with a procedure and did something — that’s 45% of those,” Pieh said. “But if everything’s going well, we just give high-fives and pats on the back and hold an umbrella over the paramedic. Afterwards, part of the decision-making is the debrief that happens, and that’s the direct, real-time teaching. If I did intervene and change the care, which I have done, then we don’t do that and walk away. We then teach why.”

Most other similar programs across the country, Pieh said, have student physicians ride along with paramedics to learn more about how to respond in emergency situations — but in Kennebec County’s case, it’s the opposite. The doctors teach the paramedics. It’s the only such program in Maine and the first in northern New England.

“If this thing doesn’t go anywhere, you have 750 people that have received some kind of training, some kind of investment, and some good things have emerged from it,” Lloyd Irland, the chair of the committee and a Wayne Selectboard member, said. “But we’ll see.”

The committee plans to meet again at 6 p.m. Wednesday at 125 State St. No final decisions on funding for the program were made Wednesday.