After years of discussion over ambulance service in Sweetwater County, a unified ambulance service will begin in a matter of days. Starting Nov. 20, Castle Rock Hospital District’s ambulance service will respond to both Green River and Rock Springs.
Recently, Castle Rock hosted a “meet and greet” dinner for old and new staff members coming together on the new ambulance team.
“One of the really great things about moving into this transition come November 20 is that we’re really going to have one unified service, and I think that’s going to benefit the community a lot,” Dr. Nicholas Kannan said while addressing the group during the event. Kannan is an Emergency Room doctor at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County through the University of Utah and is the medical director over the ambulance service.
“I’d love to work with you guys to shape something that is actually better than what we used to have,” Kannan told the staff. “This is an opportunity to kind of start fresh and create the EMS system here within the county that we’re all looking for.”
Kannan also discussed possible upcoming changes with the staff, explaining he wants to establish a quality improvement group, do regular education, improve response time and efficiency, and make sure all first responders are similarly stocked and have similar protocols.
Castle Rock Director Bailie Dockter also addressed the staff during the meet and greet, explaining she was excited to work with everyone and thankful for the new staff.
“I think it’s awesome that everybody pulled together to make this happen,” Dockter said.
Dockter also addressed a common question that has come up recently — where the ambulances in Rock Springs will be kept. The temporary solution is to work out of the current Sweetwater Medics station, for which they have a six-month lease which can be extended a month at a time once it’s up, Dockter explained. The long-term solution is to build an ambulance barn by Sweetwater Memorial’s Emergency Room which will house the ambulances and have room for sleeping quarters.
One of the best things about Castle Rock taking over ambulance service, according to Dockter, is it puts an end to all the uncertainty.
“We have an answer now,” she said. “We’re going to have an ambulance at least for the next five years. And we’re going to all work together and make that happen.”
After the meet and greet, Dockter addressed other concerns that have come up and complaints that have been made.
During the Nov. 1 Board of County Commissioners meeting, Jannette Helman from the Daggett County EMS service addressed the commissioners during the public comment period to share her concerns over some statements Dockter had made in the previous commission meeting.
Helman, who is a Sweetwater County resident who works with Daggett County’s volunteer ambulance service, expressed her desire for the boundary lines for Daggett County and Castle Rock’s service areas to be reevaluated, and said she has concerns about who responds and the response times. Helman also questioned Dockter’s comment that 95% of Sweetwater Medics staff had been hired by Castle Rock, saying she is an employee who was not contacted for an interview and she knew of other paramedics who hadn’t been hired.
Dockter said her original statement that 95% of people who had applied were hired was a “ballpark figure,” and after looking at the numbers again it was closer to 90%.
As far as the boundary lines, Dockter said they were evaluated but the staff at Castle Rock decided they weren’t comfortable changing the boundary lines at this time, especially since Sweetwater County will now have more people than ever who can respond. However, Dockter said Castle Rock has always worked with Daggett County to make sure whoever can get there fastest does, and they will continue to do so.
“We will not make a decisions that will harm a patient,” Dockter said.
As for ambulance service within Sweetwater County, Dockter said Castle Rock is fully staffed and ready to go. While she knows there will be some challenges during the transition that come from working with new partners, she is confident the response times will be good and the service will be able to continue to make changes to improve efficiency.
One idea Castle Rock has already come up with to improve response time to both communities is sending an ambulance to a halfway point between Green River and Rock Springs, probably close to Cruel Jack’s, when more ambulances are already out on call in one community than in the other, so that ambulance can be ready to go and get there quickly when it’s needed.
“We are going to continue to offer the ALS service and that’s never going to go away and we are going to be here now permanently,” Dockter said regarding what she wants the community to know. “So there’s a solution for a combined ambulance service across Rock Springs and Green River and it’s a permanent solution. So there really shouldn’t be any more questions about who’s going to be responding or if somebody’s going to be responding. We’ll be there. And we’ll be there quickly and with highly qualified people.”
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