Washington moving ahead with quick responder service

The city of Washington is moving forward with a plan to establish a quick responder service (QRS).

At Tuesday’s meeting, the City Council gave the go-ahead to submit an application to the state for the approval of the Washington EMS.

“We’ve been meeting a year and a half to get the ball rolling with policies, with the roster, with equipment, with pairing up that makes sense for the Washington County EMS so we can share supplies,” Mayor Jaron Rosien said.

In a memo detailing the plans, City Administrator Brent Hinson said the state’s approval process takes about 60 days, and that following approval, they would recommend affiliating with the Washington County Ambulance Service that will allow the sharing of protocols, staff roster and training.

The QRS would work as a supplement to the Washington County Ambulance Service. A QRS unit could arrive first on a scene and give initial emergency treatment to a patient until the ambulance arrives.

The new service will be part of the Washington Fire Department.

“The way we have this envisioned is to have a new division within the fire department,” Hinson said. “We’ll have an assistant chief for EMS that reports to the fire chief and is in charge of the operations of that division.”

Fire Chief Brendan DeLong said he plans to appoint Carrie Ornduff, who has 14 years of experience, to the assistant chief position.

The roster would be made up of volunteers who will rotate on-call shifts.

“We’ll have a staff of about 20 people — half will be firefighters and the other half will be individuals not on the fire department,” DeLong said. “The main reason for that is if we have a fire incident, I want the firefighters with the fire department not EMS.”

The city will still have to purchase equipment for the new service, Hinson said. More information on that would be brought before council at its next meeting.

Hinson said that the goal is to have the service up and running on July 1.