Ambulance authority moves all county ambulances to advanced life support, officials say

Commissioners received an update from the ambulance authority: as of April 1 all nine ambulances in the county's fleet are staffed and equipped at the advanced life support (ALS) level, enabling paramedics to perform advanced procedures on scene.

"As of the April first of this week, Brandon Truman is now the acting director of the Ambulance Authority," Commissioner Colette reported during board reports, noting that Truman would serve as acting director with a retiring director serving as adviser through October. Colette said the ALS upgrade was enabled by a partnership with Blue Ridge College and a related higher-education grant.

"We had 3 ambulances in our fleet that were just basic life support only and not advanced life support. And as of the April 1, all of our ambulances now, all 9 of them are advanced life support," Colette said. She listed benefits including on-site defibrillation and certain medication administration and said the authority's average countywide response time is about 8.5 minutes.

Colette also provided performance notes: since January 1, the county has collected roughly 80% of nonresidential fee invoices connected with ambulance authority operations; seven replacement trucks are expected to arrive before July 1; and overtime has been reduced compared with the prior year (the transcript records an apparent numeric error in the percentage cited). Commissioners praised the authority's progress and thanked staff for the operational improvements.

The briefing was informational; no formal commission action was recorded on the topic.