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Ambulance service reports increased calls, staffing updates and plans for EMR training after loss of a trainee
Summary
Sawyer County Ambulance reported 692 calls year-to-date, additional staffing and plans to sponsor an EMR course at LCO College; the service also reported the recent death of a trainee and outlined plans for response-time reporting and stationing ambulances.
The Sawyer County Ambulance service reported higher call volume compared with the prior year and outlined staffing, training and equipment updates at the Public Safety Committee meeting.
As of the report the service had recorded 692 calls for the year, compared with 609 calls at the same point last year. Service leadership said the agency is fully staffed with paramedics and maintains a pool of part-time paramedics and EMTs; several staff members are completing orientation and new part-time applications have been received.
The service reported a recent death of an EMT/paramedic trainee. The presenter said the trainee, a 20-year-old who lived in Poplar, Wisconsin, died at home; the ambulance director has been in contact with the Douglas County medical examiner and staff attended a grief session with the trainee’s department. The ambulance director said the death appears to have a strong mental‑health component and that the service plans to address mental-health support for EMS personnel in coming months.
On training and education, the service said it is on track to sponsor an Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) course in Hayward through LCO College, with local EMTs and instructors participating as trainers. The director also described an experiment producing township-level average response times and said he will provide response-time reporting roughly three times per year until automated reporting can be implemented.
Operationally, the director said stationing varies by township: one ambulance intended for Sand Lake is currently in Hayward; a new ambulance was at a repair shop (Timber Ford) for an emergency-brake repair; Ojibwe and Hayward stations were reported as staffed. The director noted many EMTs hold multiple jobs with neighboring services and said he monitors rest and shift safety.
