Ambulance anniversary

By Washington County Ambulance Director Jeremy Peck’s own admission, this past year — the first year of a county-run ambulance service — has been a fast one.

Peck presented his first annual report of the service to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday morning.

“This last year has gone really well and fast,” Peck said. “There have been a lot of changes. Employees have done an amazing job of going with the changes, absorbing them and rolling out an outstanding ambulance service.”

Among the highlights of the service’s first year that Peck reported were assisting the city of Washington in establishing a first responder service, receiving grants from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation and CIVCO, receiving an ambulance from the city of Riverside and developing a liaison program with all of the county’s first responder services.

One of the top highlights, though, was the establishment of a new ambulance station just south of Kalona on 133rd Street, to help better serve residents in the northern tier of Washington County.

The building is owned by the city of Kalona, and the service occupies the space rent-free, only paying for utilities.

The cities of Kalona and Wellman each paid $22,500 to help renovate the station, while the city of Riverside pitched in $15,000.

“I was really proud of Riverside, Kalona and Wellman all ponying up money to remodel that station for the ambulance service,” Supervisor Bob Yoder said. “We’re reaping the benefits now.”

Those benefits include reduced call times to Wellman, Kalona and Riverside.

According to Peck’s report, call times to Wellman average 13.58 minutes; Riverside 15.78 minutes; and Kalona 8.72 minutes.

“When they opened that station on the old Shiloh property, in Wellman and Riverside, it took about 10 minutes off the time it took the ambulance to get there,” Yoder said. “It used to take 20 minutes to half an hour to get an ambulance out of Washington, depending on the circumstances.”

Officials in those cities are pleased with the service they have received.

“From the city of Wellman’s perspective, we have heard nothing but good,” Wellman City Administrator Kelly Litwiller said. “We have had residents of Wellman and from the rural area reach out to express their appreciation of Wellman, Kalona and Riverside going together to help Washington County Ambulance with getting a response unit in the northern part of the county.”

Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh added, “From the city of Kalona’s perspective, we have heard nothing but positives after Washington County Ambulance took over in July of last year.”

Riverside City Administrator Christine Yancey noted that Riverside had the second longest response time of any city in the county, just ahead of Brighton’s 16.3 minutes, but said that is part of being in a rural area.

“They are doing as well as they can with the resources that they have,” Yancey said. “Ideally, we’d like to see response times go down a bit.”

Prior to agreeing to partner with the cities of Kalona and Wellman to help establish the northern ambulance station, Riverside officials discussed establishing its own ambulance service.

That talk has died down, according to Yancey.

“We’re not looking at anything like that,” she said.

There are talks, though, of bringing on a full-time paramedic for the city.

“We will be having a work session to talk about that to see if that would help,” Yancey said. “Nothing is set in stone.

“Having a paramedic would help in those first few crucial minutes until the ambulance can arrive.”

Peck said that the service is always looking for ways to make improvements.

“We’re always looking to improve, updates in equipment and trucks,” he said. “We’re looking at how we can get response times down even more, if that’s possible.

“We’re always looking at our protocols to go with the latest advancements in medicine and try to provide the best care that we can.”

City and county officials praised the work Peck and his staff have done.

“I have spoken with a member of the Wellman Volunteer Ambulance who mentioned that Jeremy Peck is doing great things for the Washington County Ambulance such as training, equipment and looking at the future needs,” Litwiller said. “Thanks should go to Director Peck along with his staff and Washington County Board of Supervisors for seeing the importance of a county run ambulance service.”

Schlabaugh relayed some feedback he received late last year.

“In mid-November, we had a family reach out to thank both our Kalona EMS and Washington County Ambulance in their assistance in helping evaluate, treat and transport a family member,” he said. “The terms ‘timely, kind and professional’ were used to express their gratitude for both departments.”

Supervisor Stan Stoops summed it up simply by saying, “Jeremy has done a bang-up job. “