Jefferson County Ambulance Service eager to move into renovated ambulance barn

FAIRFIELD — Jefferson County is less than a month away from taking on ambulance duties.

Jefferson County Ambulance Service will operate in the former First National Bank at 1900 W. Burlington Ave., which is being renovated into an ambulance barn. The new ambulance barn will have three bays to accommodate the service’s three ambulance rigs.

The interior of the former bank building is being renovated, too, with the addition of new bathrooms, showers, offices, sleeping quarters, kitchen and laundry.

Jefferson County Ambulance Service will assume responsibility for responding to 911 calls and conducting hospital transfers at 12 a.m. Oct. 1. The county’s current ambulance provider is CARE Ambulance based in Iowa City, which will complete its three-year contract with Jefferson County on Sept. 30.

Jefferson County Ambulance Director Brian Thomas said that he and the other ambulance staffers are working from the basement of the Jefferson County Courthouse while the ambulance barn is being renovated. He said that construction is on schedule, and that hiring new staff is on schedule, too.

“We’re in the middle of hiring about 19 people, and we’ll have training for them Sept. 14-16,” Thomas said.

Thomas said the ambulance service plans to have 12 full-time staff consisting of six paramedics and six emergency medical technicians (EMTs). The remaining eight or nine staffers will be part-time.

Last December, CARE Ambulance informed the Jefferson County Ambulance Service Agency that it would need an additional $90,000 per month, in part because of a staffing crisis that forced CARE to hire expensive traveling paramedics. At the time, the company’s director of operations, Chris Bodenstadt, told the ambulance service agency that he had to ask some employees to work as many as 120 hours per week, and that even he as the director of operations and the company’s CEO Bob Libby had to travel to Jefferson County to staff the ambulances. Even then, CARE was only able to provide one full-time ambulance and another that was on call for 12 hours a day, which prompted the ambulance service agency to sue CARE for breach of contract.

Thomas said that, though he has witnessed this shortage of paramedics firsthand, he was able to find all the paramedics he needed to fully staff the new county-run ambulance service. Judy Heisel was hired to be the ambulance base director. She was previously the base director for CARE, and has 20 years of experience working in emergency services. Thomas said all of the new employees have worked on ambulances before, ranging in experience from six months to 30 years.

“Our paramedics have come not only from our county but from surrounding counties like Wapello, Lee, Henry, Keokuk and Des Moines,” Thomas said. “Word-of-mouth has been instrumental in facilitating our paramedic hiring. Judy has been instrumental in reaching out to them, too. A lot of it is from our reputation.”

The new ambulance administration has been coordinating with Jefferson County Health Center on CPR training and acquiring the necessary pharmaceuticals. Thomas said his office has not been coordinating directly with CARE, though that coordination is being handled by the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office. He said the public can expect fantastic service when Jefferson County takes over on Oct. 1.

“Our response times will be spot on,” Thomas said. “The public can expect a group of professional individuals coming out. They represent the county, and represent Judy and myself, because we have done the interviews. They are a reflection on us, too. We want to alleviate fears people have from past experiences, because the residents of Jefferson County can expect a whole new and much better product. We are going to put our best foot forward and give the county what they deserve.”

Thomas said that Jefferson County Ambulance Service will start by operating with two full-service advanced life support ambulances, and then bring a third one on board later this year.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com