Eastern Marshall County EMS 10 Year – 2 Challenges

Three years ago, EMC was challenged by the Fire Districts to make Advanced Life Support (ALS) available 24/7/365.  In order to achieve this worthy benchmark, the Board of Directors had to make several structural changes. The Board had to address:  1) the nature of what was primarily a voluntary service; 2) the requirement to have a licensed paramedic on site 24/7/365; and 3) the general organizational structure of the Service.

Although the volunteer and part-time staff did a commendable job of providing emergency services, it could not consistently deliver to new benchmark.  The Board first established a formal operational organizational structure staffing two, full time, paid leadership positions.  Kimmel Jenkins was hired as the Operational Supervisor and Jacey Ahrens as the Assistant Operational Supervisor.  Each are licensed paramedics and provide 48 hours each of Advanced Life Support shift coverage.  In addition they were responsible for meeting all the operational administrative duties such as staffing, staff development, individual performance reviews, scheduling, payroll, compliance, quality assurance, reporting, etc.
 
To ensure paramedic availability for every hour of everyday for every week, the next step was move to a part-time paid staff, relying on the volunteer staff for secondary calls or major events.  The good news is the plan has worked as EMC-EMS has met the goal since October 2021.  The bad news is that it comes at a cost, which will be addressed below.  However, we can all take comfort that our communities are realizing the benefit of 24/7 ALS coverage which most small cities and villages do not have available.
 
Note:  Advanced Life Support is a collection of lifesaving emergency procedures that goes beyond basic life support measures and can only be performed by a licensed paramedic.  ALS could include: 1) Airway management procedures to assess pain, plan and maintain or restore breathing; 2) IV access to intravenously administer medications or reverse allergic reactions; 3) Medication administration to treat conditions or reverse allergic reactions; and 4) Electrical therapies that include defibrillation or cardioversion to restore normal heart rhythm.  The goal is to stabilize a patient who may have suffered a life threatening event until the patient is transported to the hospital emergency room.