Washington County ambulance ‘running smoothly’ in second year

WASHINGTON — County Ambulance Director Jeremy Peck told Washington County Supervisors Tuesday that the service had a productive second year during his annual report to the group.

Peck said calls for service to emergency responders were climbing across the county.

“Total calls this year were 3,281, which is up from 2,700-and-some last year,” Peck said. “Kalona QRS responded and said they had a record 313 calls for service, so their call volume’s up. Ainsworth fire, same story, they had 192 calls for service, 145 of theirs were EMS calls, so that’s a pretty large increase for them … Riverside fire department also responded to a record number of calls for service.”

Another highlight of the year was the new emergency communications system, according to Peck.

“We put a new radio system in … that’s been extremely beneficial for the entire county,” he said. “I can’t tell you how much better the system is. I know it was a lot of money, but it was well worth it.”

The average response time for the ambulance service was about 13.5 minutes across the county, according to data in the report. Peck said that was a “really good” number.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com