Riley County EMS presented a proposed alternative for an ambulance station in northern Riley County.
The alternative would have create two full time paramedic positions that would be based out of the Leonardville fire station.
EMS Director David Adams says this was a similar idea he had discussed with former emergency management director Pat Collins.
According to the latest data, Adams says the peak call volume for northern county is from 6 am to 8pm. This is also when they have the lowest availability of first responders.
Adams says this proposal would also allow for coverage on weekends and take the burden off of volunteers.
Adams says this position would provide a quicker response to bed side care, but may not decrease hospital transport time since they will be waiting on an ambulance.
Commission Chair John Ford has no issue with this scenario as he isn’t in full support of a new ambulance station at this time.
The average number of calls for service in the northern part of the county is around 21 per month. Ford says this is data they need to look at when making this decision.
Commissioner Greg McKinley says an ambulance is a service, not a business.
McKinley says this scenario is only a temporary fix and a more permanent one needs to be looked into. Commissioner Kathryn Focke was also in support of this scenario.
EMS staff will return sometime early next year with additional information and numbers.
Before the presentation, Adams presented his department’s monthly update for the month of November. He says this is the first time in the department’s history they have exceeded 5,000 calls in a year.
Adams says their station number one in Manhattan continues to run the most calls as per usual with 163 for November. Since July, the EMS department has been seeing some of its busiest months in the department’s history.
