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.
Continue readingPulaski County EMS is no longer taking hospital transfers to Fort Wayne or Indianapolis. The county commissioners voted last week to reduce the transfer radius from 100 miles to 65.
Continue readingA 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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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.
Continue readingPulaski County Emergency Medical Services continues planning for an addition to its Winamac ambulance garage. The county commissioners agreed Monday to let EMS Director Brandon DeLorenzo have the property surveyed and start the bidding process.
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Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services’ staffing challenges appear to have returned. “In about the last week-and-a-half to two weeks, I have had two full-time employees submit their letters of resignation,” EMS Director Bryan Corn told the county commissioners last week. “So now, unfortunately, we are back to having three openings.”
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.
Two of Pulaski County’s ambulances are back in service, following recent repairs. EMS Director Bryan Corn told the county commissioners Monday that the truck that was damaged in an accident on Christmas Eve seems to be working fine now. “We’re using it. So far, we haven’t had any issues,” he said. Continue reading
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.
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.”
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.
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.”
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.
The Starke County Commissioners remain concerned about the number of transfers by Starke County EMS personnel.
EMS Director Travis Clary reported to the commissioners on Oct. 2 that the percentage of transfers dropped from 35 or 25 percent to 10 percent in September.
Clerk Mary Lynn Ritchie said the number of transfers were down to seven percent in October. Continue reading
