Ambulance service has high number of June calls

The Kimball County Ambulance Service had its busiest month in a long time, the Kimball County Commissioners were told at Tuesday’s meeting.

“We had a very, very, very active June,” said Carla Goranson, county ambulance director. “I’d have to go back into the records quite a ways to see if we’ve done this many calls in a month before.”

The county ambulance service had 59 calls that month. The number of calls is defined as the number of people helped, not the number of times the ambulance went out.

“For a part-time service, that’s a lot,” Goranson said.

Goranson said the calls seemed to come in waves, and many times two ambulances were running at the same time. Just over 40 percent of the calls (24 of 59) came on Saturday. There were 12 calls on Sunday and 11 on Monday. There were just 12 combined calls Tuesday through Friday.

Several rollovers or accidents with multiple people in a vehicle contributed to the high number of calls, Goranson said. She also said construction on Interstate 80 contributed to several accidents. June also saw seven transfers by air - six by helicopter and one via fixed-wing aircraft.

Goranson also reported that the ambulance service will soon have four new emergency medical technicians. She reported three current crew members who are emergency medical responders will soon move up to EMT status, in addition to having one new EMT. There will also be two additional registered nurses join the ambulance service in the next couple weeks.

“We’re excited about that,” she said.

The commissioners also:

- Held their quarterly jail inspection.

- Appointed Kristopher “Butch” Nitz to the Kimball County Veterans Service Committee. He replaces Joe Hernandez, whose term had expired.