The Culver Town Council is aiming to improve its EMS services once again.
For years, Culver has discussed elevating its EMS department to a full-paramedic service. At the end of 2015 and the beginning of this year, the Culver Town Council made substantial investments retaining employees and raising their status to an advance level service.
Town Council President Ginny Bess Munroe says the cost burden came with the initial jump, but it won’t be too much of an investment to make the next transition.
“Believe it or not, the easiest part of it is fiscal because it’s not a huge increase for us financially to move to paramedic because we had already moved to the advanced level – which is really where we took on cost,” says Munroe.
Some of the issues Culver is facing are easily managed in the short-term – such as hiring more employees. Others will take longer to complete, such as updating the EMS service’s Standard Operating Procedures.
Further, a paramedic service will require approvals for their EMT’s from the Director of Medical Services in Plymouth to be able to properly administer certain medicines to patients utilizing Culver’s ambulance services.
The Town of Culver anticipates the transition will take about six months, with progress being reported regularly during that time. Council member Sally Ricciardi says this is a positive.
“I know that for the last several years, we’ve talked about moving toward paramedic and we’ve been moving in that direction and I think it’s great that we’re at a point where we can do that,” says Ricciardi.
Culver already has paramedics in their department, but in order to take the department to full-paramedic services, they would need at least one on every shift.
The hiring process is expected to begin shortly with new guidelines being discussed in the coming weeks. The Town Council approved moving forward with the service unanimously.
