Published June 20 in the Kentucky Standard

Nelson County considers better EMS coverage

By LISA TOLLIVER
Kentucky Standard Assistant Editor

BARDSTOWN — When Nelson Fiscal Court voted to purchase and take over the Nelson County EMS service, one of its main goals was to provide better service to the outlying portions of the county.

The court took no action Tuesday, but considered ways to expand service to Bloomfield and New Haven.

With new hours, the areas have 24-hour shifts for Bardstown Sunday through Thursday and two 10-hour shifts in Bloomfield and New Haven for the same time period.

Friday and Saturday there are two 24-hour shifts for Bardstown and one 10-hour shift for the outlying areas. Paramedics are on-call after those hours.

Joe Prewitt, who manages the county’s service, said the lack of service in Bloomfield and New Haven has been the problem all along.

He would like to see the county boost the 10 hour shifts to 12 hours Sunday through Thursday and have three 24-hour shifts for all three areas during the weekend.

“We need the manpower on those days,” he said.

Another solution may be instituting a first-responders program in the county. With the first responders program, an ambulance would be stationed in Bloomfield and New Haven. Paramedics living in those areas would be equipped with beepers. Though not on-call, the paramedics have the option of responding to an emergency. A primary ambulance would also be called out. The first responders would assess the situation for the primary ambulance.

Prewitt said he has spoken with personnel, who say they would rather work on a first-responders program.

“They don’t want to be scheduled on call,” he said.

Magistrate Amos Gritton said the on-call system doesn’t work.

“They will work an emergency,” he said. “But they don’t want to be called out to transfer a patient.”

Prewitt said the first responders program would not require any extra equipment because there are already ambulances stationed in Bloomfield and New Haven.

“Everybody really needs to get on board and realize this is a good thing,” Gritton said.

On a related matter, the court voted to seek bids for a new ambulance van to replace an ambulance with more than 210,000 miles, as well as a new chassis for an ambulance with 190,000 miles.

The court also approved a repeater program for the emergency departments — fire, ambulance and police. The program would allow emergency personnel to communicate better in parts of the county where dead spots in the scanners occurred.

BACK TO NEWS INDEX

BACK TO MAIN INDEX

COMMENTS

Copyright © 2002 The Kentucky EMS Connection. All rights reserved. News stories may be copyrighted by another organization. Original material may be reproduced provided source is credited.