Due to volunteerism being low nationwide, one local volunteer squad is implementing new ideas.
The JEB Stuart Rescue Squad has been serving Patrick County for over 37 years. The squad has seen a decline in active volunteers in the past several years, going from 40 active members to approximately 15 active members.
These members also have the responsibilities of everyday life, such as college, full-time jobs, part-time jobs, and families. Not only do these EMS volunteers have every day responsibilities, but as volunteers, they are held to the same standard as career EMS professionals.
With the low number of volunteers and a high call volume, averaging approximately 1,100 plus calls per year, this puts an overwhelming strain on the squad.
The JEB Stuart Rescue Squad has been trying new ideas. In June of this year, the squad implemented a stipend program to attempt to increase call coverage and noticed a small increase. As of August, JEB Stuart runs approximately 54% of the calls that Patrick County 911 receives for the county. These statistics were received from the Patrick County 911 center.
Following the recent closing of our local hospital, JEB Stuart recognizes that transport times will be incredibly longer, having to transport out of the county. This will affect the number of calls a crew is able to cover due to turn-around times being 2-3 hours before a truck can return to service, based on calls since the closing of the hospital.
JEB Stuart’s highest priority is patient care and making sure the citizens of Patrick County have peace of mind knowing if they have a medical emergency that a medical professional will be there.
Experiencing the burden for the past two weeks of not having our local hospital, JEB Stuart has decided to pursue a new strategy. The strategy consist of hiring at least 6 part-time EMTs from the hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday-Friday.
These professionals will be Advance Life Support (ALS) trained. A typical crew will consist of one EMT-Basic and one ALS provider due to state regulation. These crews will be standing by the station and ready to respond at any given time for JEB Stuart’s call or any other mutual aid call. Also, these crews will be an asset to the squad and its volunteers by helping them with keeping the units cleaned, stocked and will provide training to other volunteers.
The Board of Directors of JEB Stuart has voted unanimously for this strategy. With overwhelming interest from the community in support of paid services that has been shown at several Patrick County Board of Supervisors meetings, the squad feels that it is time to take steps toward in making sure that our county residents’ emergency medical needs are met.
While the board of supervisors is still discussing how to address the problem of low volunteer turnout, JEB Stuart has also been strategizing for several months on how to compensate for the volunteer shortage. Realizing what a huge financial undertaking this is for the county, the squad has decided it is more feasible to provide its own paid staff. This will be in addition to what the county decides on to back up the volunteers.
According to President Joanne Spangler, “The financing of our paid staff will come from the soft-billing of the calls that would have been missed from our squad and some slight changes in billing that we have just become aware of. We are hoping that these changes will ease the burden of other squads and emergency management staff of having to cover our missed calls.” We would like to thank all surrounding agencies for assisting us with call coverage when we were unable to provide a crew. We would ask that the community and other agencies bear with us while we implement these new plans. We are accepting applications for the positions EMT-Basic through EMT-Paramedic through October 11, 2017. We are always accepting VOLUNTEER applications. If you would like to apply, please email us at jsvrs03@gmail.com or for more information please contact me at (276) 692-6640. Derek Wagner
Captain
JEB Stuart Rescue Squad
