County commissioners are looking at the feasibility of adding a third full-time ambulance to Franklin County’s fleet. The board has created a committee comprised of firefighters, the ambulance service, the clerk of the court and the county commission chairman to look at the issue and consider ways to pay for a third ambulance.
Currently Franklin County has two full time ambulances in operation – a third comes on-line during the summer months when more tourists come to the area. Local firefighters however, feel that two ambulances are not enough especially since on average Franklin County goes three hours a day with only one ambulance available while the second provides transport out of the area. They are asking that the county bring in a third ambulance to take over transporting patients for non-life threatening calls which would leave two ambulances free at all times for emergency services.
The cost may be prohibitive – adding an advanced life support ambulance full time and staffing it can cost up to 300 thousand dollars a year – but firefighters say the costs would not be that high. They argue that you won’t need an ALS ambulance for routine transport, and non-emergency calls are covered by insurance and Medicare. They feel that a transport ambulance would make money or at least bring in enough money so that the county could more easily cover any shortfall.
There is also the question as to whether there are enough calls to justify a third ambulance. Currently the two ambulances in operation average 2.1 runs a day per truck.
County commissioners say they do want to make sure that residents and visitors are protected so they have agreed to take a closer look at the ambulance issue. The committee they created was tasked with considering short term responses to the ambulance issue and with the longer term costs of adding a third ambulance.
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