Cole County EMS director requests additional staffing
The Cole County ambulance service is asking county leaders for additional staffing.
Right now, Cole County EMS has to hand over a lot of out-of-town patient transfers to outside agencies so it can keep up with 911 calls. Because of that, the agency is missing out on roughly $110,000, according to EMS Director Jerry Johnston.
Cole County EMS regularly transports patients to Columbia and across Mid-Missouri, sometimes traveling much further distances.
“Every once in awhile, we’ll have a transfer that’s literally 10 or 12 hours round-trip,” Johnston said. “(It) ties up a lot of time, takes a crew out of service all day.”
Johnston has been exploring ways the ambulance service can operate more efficiently during his first three months as the agency’s director.
He is asking county commissioners for approval to hire two Emergency Medical Technicians, a step down from paramedics. The new crew would handle patient transfers for an eight to 12 hour shift Monday through Friday.
“It would be more cost effective to the county to do that and more efficient for the system because that frees up the paramedics to provide 911-level care for emergency services,” Johnston said.
Two of the agency’s ambulances are scheduled for replacement this year. Johnston is requesting a smaller-sized vehicle in place of one of the ambulances to handle the patient transfers.
The smaller vehicle would cost about $70,000 less and the additional staff should not cost the county much money, according to Johnston.
“We’ve done some preliminary number crunching and we are nearly able to pay for the additional staff with the offset and additional revenue that we would receive from being able to do most, if not all, of these transports,” Johnston said.
Johnston said, ideally, he would like to have the requested changes in place by the start of July.
Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17 News Thursday he was in favor of the proposal. The county auditor and finance officials are currently reviewing the projected staffing costs and potential revenue that could be brought in by the additional patient transfers.
The commission is set to vote on a bid for the new ambulances on April 18.
