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New EMS operator reports 18 days of service in Henry County; staffing and response data to guide expansion
Summary
County-appointed EMS operator says the new service completed its 18th day of operations with about 60 responses and 48 transports; officials said they will compile a month of data before recommending changes in coverage hours or vehicles.
Henry County's newly contracted emergency medical services operation reported its 18th day of calls and said it has logged roughly 60 ambulance responses since starting midnight March 1.
"Today was our eighteenth day of operations here in Henry County," said Joe Rhodes, who briefed the fiscal court on the new service. Rhodes said no major operational hiccups had occurred and that staffing remained a work in progress; the service had filled all emergency medical technician positions and hired an additional medic on the day of the meeting.
Rhodes said the service had transported 48 patients so far. "Most of those have went to Badgeshallfield Grange. After that will be Shelbyville. And then we've taken just a handful to Brownsboro, Jewish downtown, Louisville, and University downtown as well," he said.
Rhodes told magistrates that current daytime coverage includes one ambulance after 6 p.m. and two primary vehicles plus one backup in the county, with advanced life-support (ALS) coverage structured weekdays and extended coverage on busier weekends. "If two calls come out at the same time and one is chest pain and one is a low-acuity call, we will go to the chest pain first," he said, describing how crews prioritize calls based on the information available.
Rhodes said the service will gather at least one full month of data before recommending changes to staffing or hours. He suggested the court might consider extending the 10-hour truck to cover more days or increasing daily coverage to 12 hours depending on the usage patterns that emerge.
Magistrates and local officials raised concerns about call mix and the potential for low-acuity calls to tie up ambulances during peak times. Rhodes said the provider aims to be a "responsible partner" and will base any staffing requests on collected response data.
The court also asked about surplus assets from the prior ambulance provider; county staff said surplus vehicles and equipment will be evaluated and likely sold via surplus channels such as GovDeals, with valuation dependent on condition and market interest.
Rhodes committed to returning to the court with a more complete dataset in about two weeks to support staffing recommendations.
