Ambulance services are a valuable resource for any community. But like everything else in rural America, they are becoming precious and rare. Sufficiently staffing each of O’Brien County’s six separate ambulance services has been an on-going and increasing problem. Two communities, Archer and Calumet have partnered with neighboring communities to provide service for their residents.
Many ideas to provide 24/7 coverage across the county have been discussed. Few have been implemented. One of the biggest roadblocks for any kind of possible single service county wide is currently services in O’Brien County have different medical directors and so different protocols. In English that means that the treatments that an EMT can give from one service may be different than for another service.
Emergency Management Director Jared Johnson briefed the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday August 16 about the situation. In addition to there currently being 3 different medical directors for the six services, Johnson reported that in the wake of the departure of Dr. Nyunt from Primghar MercyOne, Hartley is considering working under Spencer Hospital and Sutherland under Cherokee Regional Medical Center. He explained that he learned of the possible change on Monday. The development leaves Primghar and Sanborn not indicating their next move. A medical director for an ambulance service is a licensed MD who oversees the service and determines the level of care a service can provide to a patient within state law and can be different from service to service.
O’Brien County provides each ambulance service with $7500 each year for approved equipment purchases. Johnson asked the supervisors for approval, if all of the ambulance services also approve, to move a portion of those funds into a separate fund to pay a modest salary to a county-wide, part time medical director. Supervisors approved the request. It is up to the individual ambulance services to determine if they wish to use funds in this way. None of the current medical directors charge for their services.