In a unanimous vote on Aug. 25, the Patrick County Board of Supervisors approved a contract to transition the county’s paid EMS staff, or Station 8, from county oversight to management of Lexington Inc., which will do business as Patrick County EMS.
The transition will occur by the end of the year.
According to a county media release, all current Station 8 employees will be offered employment with Patrick County EMS, ensuring a seamless transition and continuity of service.
Patrick County EMS will also commit $2 million to enhance EMS operations in Patrick County. “This investment includes the purchase of new ambulances and advanced training opportunities for EMS personnel. Additionally, Patrick County EMS, partnering with Braden Health, will handle its own direct billing, further streamlining operations,” the release stated.
Presentation
During his presentation at the meeting, Ambulance Services of Lexington Director Glynn Mooney said Patrick County EMS will be stationed at Stuart Community Hospital.
“The Ambulance Services of Lexington EMS – we’re a primary 911 service and we’ll be responding to all highly trained medical personnel calls. We try to run a paramedic on every truck as much as we can and we’ll continue to do so here in Patrick County,” he said.
Mooney said the company offers convalescent services, like transportation back home following hospital, nursing home, and rehabilitation discharges and to and from scheduled appointments.
“We’ll offer that here in Patrick County as well,” he said.
As a community-oriented company, Mooney said residents can expect to see the company out in the community often.
“So, your football games, we’re going to be a part of that. Your basketball games, we’ll be a part of that. Anything that has a high instance of injury, we want to be a part of that,” Mooney said. “We also want to be a big part of the community as far as your first responders, your rescue squads, your fire departments. We want to help train, we want to be a one team approach.”
The company also has a strike team response in which EMS teams are deployed to areas affected by natural disasters.
Mooney noted some of those responses were deployed last year when Hurricane Helene hit Virginia and North Carolina.
The Ambulance Services of Lexington currently includes the Decatur County EMS, Haywood EMS, Henderson County EMS, and Houston County EMS, with Perry County EMS set to open sometime in September.
“We’re very proud of the growth that we have seen this year,” he said.
Across its entire fleet in 2024, Ambulance Services of Lexington received 11,674 EMS requests and provided transports in 9,074 instances.
State of the art equipment like Zoll X- Series Cardiac Monitors, Stryker Power Load systems, emergency child restraint systems, and EZ-IO systems will be used.
“As we met with the other staff from Station 8 today, we let them know we most likely will be transitioning their Life Packs over to a Zoll X Cardiac monitor. That is because we do our own billing, we do our own patient care reports, and so the Zoll monitors integrate into that patient care report a lot better than the Life Packs. We will be buying all new cardiac Zoll monitors and replacing the Life Packs,” he said.
Patrick County EMS will also do its billing inhouse.
“We don’t outsource billing, so if a patient has a problem with their bill they’re talking directly to us. They’re not talking to someone in a different state, they’re talking directly to us. We do have our own billing program. It’s called financial assistance, where if someone’s not able to pay their bill, we work with that patient to make sure we’re not taking their farm or anything like that. We’ll work with those patients to pay what they can pay, and we’ll work on that bill,” he said.
The company also manages its own fleet maintenance services, and doesn’t outsource any of the work.
“We do all it in house. We would do the same here in Patrick County,” he added.
Mooney there is a field training officer at every ambulance service.
“They do everything from not only training our paramedics and EMTs in our services, but we also work with training in our hospitals. It’s kind of like I was telling you earlier, when rescue squads, the fire departments, the police departments, and all of us are doctors, nurses, and paramedics, we want to be trained all at one time at the same place that way we’re a community-approach and everyone’s trained the same way,” he said.
Board Views
Board Chairman Jonathan Wood, of the Peters Creek District, said he believes this is in the best interest of the county in the long run.
“I think that we can serve the county better with the decisions that we’ve made both short-term and long-term,” he said.
Wood said the board deeply appreciates the community’s support of the hospital reopening effort and this creative solution to provide high-quality emergency care for residents.
“This partnership strengthens our emergency response capacity while continuing to honor the critical role of our volunteers,” Wood said.
Vice-chairman Andrew Overby, of the Dan River District, said he feels Braden Health is going to be a great partner for the county.
“That’s what they’ve trying to do, and that’s what they’ve going to do. This is not going to hurt anything that Patrick County has accomplished, it’s only going to improve services for the entire county,” he said.
Steve Marshall, of the Blue Ridge District, said he believes this contract will provide much better service for county residents.
“I think it’s a very good thing. Nothing wrong with the county running it necessarily, but these are much more professional people, and they have a lot more insight into how to provide service to rural counties. I think that’s where it benefits them,” Marshall said.
Clayton Kendrick, of the Mayo River District, said he feels good about entering into the contract with Patrick County EMS.
“I think it will work out well, and if it doesn’t, we’ve got backup plans on it and contingencies. They seem to be good to work with, I think it will be best for the people,” he said.
Doug Perry, of the Smith River District, said he believes Wood hit the nail on the head regarding the subject of improved care.
The county doesn’t “have the resources and the money to really provide adequate care. That’s proof in the pudding. We’ve got one or two ambulances running like crazy, and still have extended call times. I think this is a great evolution, or the next step. I’m excited for it and very hopeful,” he said.
Perry said volunteer squads will still be the primary response for EMS calls.
“When those tones go out, volunteers get the first choice. At the same time,” Patrick County EMS “did say that when a call comes out, they’ve in route because time is everything and the volunteers will have the ability to say we’ve got the call covered and that’s when” Patrick County EMS “will stop coming. Time is of the essence, but if volunteers can cover it, volunteers get the call, volunteers get the insurance bill, the whole nine yards. Volunteers come first, and they have made that very clear,” he said.
