Washington County EMS Responders are volunteer health care providers

July 20, 2016

West Chester, Iowa

To the editor,

In the ?Salute to Volunteers 2016? section of Thursday, July 14 Washington Evening Journal a group of 85 individuals who volunteer to provide healthcare to their respective communities 24/7/365 days a year were not among those listed. I fully understand that these individuals are recognized during ?EMS Week? but I think it cannot be said enough so that the community members understand that in each of our respective Washington County towns (Ainsworth, Brighton, Crawfordsville, Kalona, Riverside, Wellman and West Chester) there are individuals with day and/or nighttime jobs that volunteer to provide emergency health care. Washington county residents also are provided care by the certified health care providers in Keota and Wayland as well.

These individuals go through over a thousand hours of initial emergency medical training as well as continuing education for recertification. The commitment to provide emergency health care is just the tip of the iceberg that has to be done in order to maintain each authorized First Responder unit. Training on protocols, equipment, policies and procedures is done, auditing run reports, seeking grant funding and holding fundraisers to help offset the purchase and maintenance of equipment and training costs, assuring compliance with the state rules and regulations of an authorized EMS service are just a few of the added responsibilities of the volunteer.

As ?volunteerism? diminishes around our country it is important to note the health care contribution these units provide for Washington County and recognize the overall value they provide to the county.

Sincerely,

Katrina Altenhofen