Advanced Life Service Will be Ready March 1st

Starke County officials were brought up to date this week on the progress made by the EMS to attain Advanced Life Support Certification.

According to EMS Director Paul Mathewson, inspectors approved the rigs for Advanced Life Support care and gave their approval for certification.

To date, eight part-time and one full-time paramedics have been hired and protocols are being studied by the new employees. Mathewson said the service should be in place by March 1st. He is coordinating with IU Health Starke Hospital to make the service seamless between the two entities.

Commissioner Kathy Norem, who has spearheaded ALS was pleased that the two year effort is finally coming together.

“This is a Commissioner project and there was a lot of Council effort put into this as well. You can’t accomplish great things like this unless you have a good team to work with and we certainly do in Starke County,” said Norem.

Paul Mathewson was also praised.

“We’re very pleased to have Paul come on board here in Starke County and he has certainly exceeded expectations that we set for him.”

Starke County was one of only two counties that did not have the advanced service.