Third ambulance crew to start next month

Washington — Washington County officials have approved hires and pay changes for numerous ambulance staff, setting up the department to launch a third crew for its service starting next month.

Interim Washington County Ambulance Director Katrina Altenhofen said the third shift was a long time coming.

“This is a very good team that, I think, gets shortchanged quite often,” she said. “They have stepped up, done whatever’s been asked. Moving into and getting a third shift started is not for the light of heart. It is extremely messy and cumbersome, but they’re doing it, and that’s awesome.”

The plan of adding an extra shift for the emergency service first came up in September of last year, but spent months in limbo as officials debated logistics, funding and staffing for proposal.

Once up and running, Altenhofen has said a third crew would boost the county’s emergency response readiness, improving the odds that a staffed ambulance is ready to ride and not committed elsewhere when a call comes in, given ever-growing call volumes for the service.

"The gold standard is to have a rig staffed with crew members for every thousand calls you have, and right now we have over 3,000 calls,“ she said at a meeting in December. ”So we need to have more than just the two that we’ve currently got.“

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com