Starke County EMS personnel continue to face challenges during this health pandemic.
EMS Director Travis Clary told the Starke County Commissioners last week that staffing has been somewhat of an issue in the last month.
“We’ve had nearly half of our staff out on isolation in the last month,” explained Clary. “We continue to be fortunate with everybody stepping up. I just can’t thank everybody enough from the office staff, EMTs, paramedics – it’s truly been a team effort to make sure we staff everything well. I have been working the ambulances as needed.”
In addition, paramedics and EMTs are attempting to do as much virtual training as possible.
Clary said that he typically hosts several CPR training sessions with fire departments, police departments, daycares, and nursing homes, but they have been hard to schedule during the health pandemic. He offers as much as he can on a virtual basis, but teaching the skills needed to do CPR properly in a virtual session is limited.
He noted that the staff members are doing what they can to keep up with certifications with as much training as possible.
The number of transfers is still lower than normal, but is holding steady with 30 to 32 percent of transfers from Northwest Health Starke Hospital.
