New Cass County EMS officially launches
Dec. 13—At 7 a.m. Monday, the Cass County Emergency Medical Service (EMS) started as planned.
The service is operating out of two places: 516 High St. by the Cass County Health Department, and 2200 Spear St. east of downtown Logansport.
"It's been busy," said EMS Director Mikel Fort about the past few days.
He and Alexis Bailey had painted the Spear Street station as part of the weekend preparations.
There were some wrinkles to iron out after Monday's opening, "just little things," Fort said. "We were pretty much set for the inspections. The inspections went fine."
"It's just going to be smooth sailing, hopefully," Fort said.
The Cass County EMS took over the service and the spots from Phoenix Paramedic Solutions, which Cass contracted with to provide ambulance services.
However, Phoenix exercised an opt-out in the contract in October because it was changing its business model away from emergency services.
The county has built its EMS service since Phoenix asked to end the contract.
This is the first time that Cass County has fully run its own ambulance service, although it funded one with Logansport Memorial Hospital in the past.
One of the two advanced ambulances was out of commission Monday afternoon because it needed work.
It's one of the loaners from the company Cass that has ordered two advanced ambulances from, and the new ambulances are expected to arrive around April.
There is a backup ambulance that is still coming, a used 2012 vehicle with 15,000 miles that was used as another area's backup.
Fort said the Pennsylvania company accepted the county's $75,000 check Monday, and the ambulance should arrive by the end of the week.
The fourth Cass ambulance, a basic support ambulance, is in service and came to Cass courtesy of Carroll County.
The basic ambulance and one advanced ambulance will operate out of the High Street site, and another advanced ambulance will operate out of the Spear Street site.
Although the Spear station received a fresh coat of paint, both places will receive improvements.
The High station will get two more bedrooms to its two existing bedrooms and bunk room, and it will get a larger supply room in the back.
Fort also hopes to put a new floor into the Spear station, although the rough one in the High bay isn't a priority and will be addressed later.
"Let's get the comforts done first," he said.
He hopes to have those comforts done and a level of normalcy in place by February or March.
Reach James D. Wolf Jr. at james.wolf@pharostribune.com or 574-732-5117
Twitter @JamesDWolfJr
