Pulaski County Eases New Restrictions on Ambulance Transfers, Authorizes Non-EMT EMS Drivers

Pulaski County is easing its new restrictions on ambulance transfers, following discussions with hospital officials. Earlier this month, the county commissioners voted to reduce the transfer radius from 100 to 65 miles, to extend the life of the county’s ambulances. But that raised concern from doctors, since that puts the major trauma centers out of reach.

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Pulaski EMS Looking to Adjust Transfer Policy, Pay for Paramedic Training

A high turnover rate among Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services staff is prompting EMS Director Brandon DeLorenzo to consider some policy changes. He told the county commissioners Monday that while the county may not be able to keep up with neighboring services’ pay rates, it may be able to make the job a little easier during the overnight hours.

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Pulaski County Council to Consider Library Bond, EMS On-Call Pay, Budget Transfers Tonight

Pulaski County Council: back row: Mike Tiede, Kathi Thompson, Brian Young; front row: Scott Hinkle, Rudy DeSabatine, Jay Sullivan (not pictured: Ken Boswell)

The Pulaski County Public Library may be moving ahead with a bond issuance. Library Attorney Justin Schramm is expected to discuss it with the county council tonight. Officials have been working on plans for lead dust and asbestos remediation in nonpublic areas of the Winamac library.

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Pulaski County EMS Transfer Numbers Rebound during Month of June

The number of ambulance transfers provided by Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services increased significantly during the month of June. For the past several months, a shortage of paramedics had been causing the department to deny more transfer requests than it accepted. But EMS Director Bryan Corn says the numbers finally appear to be trending in the right direction, following the addition of two new paramedics.

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Pulaski EMS May Be Able to Take More Transfers, As New Paramedics Join Department

Pulaski County EMS continues to deny most ambulance transfer requests from Pulaski Memorial Hospital, but EMS Director Bryan Corn expects that to change, as new paramedics are added to the department. He told the county commissioners Monday that his department denied all but one of the hospital’s 10 transfer requests during the month of April. Pulaski County EMS has decided not to take transfers when there’s only one paramedic on duty.

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Pulaski County EMS Still Working to Resolve Ambulance, Staffing Issues

After months of discussions, one of Pulaski County’s ambulances will be repaired, but now another one is out of service. That’s what EMS Director Bryan Corn told the county commissioners last week. He said the ambulance that was heavily damaged in an accident on Christmas Eve was in Iowa being repaired by its original builder. “The insurance company finally gave that the go-ahead for them to fix that,” Corn said. “That truck hopefully, according to Iowa, will be back to us sometime next week.”

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Pulaski County EMS Denies 11 Ambulance Transfers in February, Due to Staffing Issues

Pulaski County EMS still doesn’t have enough paramedics to handle all the ambulance transfer requests from Pulaski Memorial Hospital. EMS Director Bryan Corn told the county commissioners Monday that his department took five transfers during the month of February, but ended up denying 11. He said most of those denials were due to staffing issues.

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Pulaski County EMS Presents 2017 Year-End Report to County Commissioners

Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services had a busy year in 2017. Interim EMS Director Kyle McTiegue presented his year-end statistics to the county commissioners last week. “We ended up with 1,549 calls this year,” he said. “1,343 of them were ALS calls. 181 were BLS calls. We did 301 transfers. 233 of them were out of Pulaski Memorial, and roughly 70 were from other hospitals with our third crew.”

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Ambulance Transfers Gain in Numbers

Starke County EMS Clerk Mary Lynn Ritchie informed the commissioners Monday night that the number of ambulance transfers is increasing.

She said the number of transfers in November was at 16 percent which is up from seven percent the month before, but not where they were earlier this year. Basic Life Service transfers from the area nursing homes have increased where the EMS department had not been getting those calls.

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