Does Starke County need to upgrade it’s ambulance service by adding Advanced Life Service? This is the second in a series we have been running this week on this topic.
As we told you yesterday, Starke County is one of only two counties in the state that does not offer Advanced Life Service to its citizens. Even though officials have heard that the service can be paid for by charging higher rates with the Advanced Life Service, it is probably going to cost approximately $250,000 to secure the services of licensed paramedics.
Kris Rannells has worked as a paramedic in the past before returning home to join the family funeral home business in Hamlet. He says the Basic Ambulance Service in Starke County is doing a good job.
“They’re doing the most with what they have, but you’re going to have a better chance of saving more lives and keeping medical situations from expanding into a much more problematic situation with a paramedic than you are with an EMT,” said Rannells. “They are able to give all kinds of different medications and do different things to keep those medical problems from exasperating themselves.”
Kris Rannells was a paramedic in Indianapolis. Ted Hayes asked him about life saving with this upgraded service.
“In the amount of years that I was a paramedic, I can’t necessarily tell you how many lives saved alone, let alone how many lives I saved as a paramedic that would not have been saved as an EMT. I guarantee you, I made a difference as a paramedic. I don’t know about daily, but definitely weekly that would not have been made if I was just an EMT.”
A committee looking into upgrading to Advanced Life Service will meet next with paramedics from other small counties that already have it in place.
