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ELKINS – The Randolph County Emergency Squad has returned to making hospital-to-hospital transports from Davis Medical Center, after ending the service one year ago today.
Last August, both sides announced that the RCEMS would no longer be providing the transports, and that Health Team Critical Care Transport would be servicing ambulance transports from Davis Medical Center.
Randolph County Commission President David Kesling told The Inter-Mountain this week that the Randolph County Emergency Squad has resumed making the transports for DMC.
Kesling said that after the county’s Special Emergency Ambulance Service Fee Ordinance was suspended last month, because of issues with the state’s streamlined sales tax agreement, the County Commission began searching for other ways to bring in money for the EMS.
“With the financial hardship that the Randolph County EMS is in and us having to suspend the ordinance, we were looking for alternatives to get money back into the EMS,” Kesling said. “So we thought it wouldn’t hurt to reach back out to Davis, because we knew they had a new CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) there, and see what the possibility would be for the EMS to pick up transports again.”
Kesling said that fellow Commissioner Cris Siler made contact with Vandalia Health Davis Medical Center Chief Administrative Officer Diana Landsverk, and the two sides later set up a meeting.
“Myself and Commissioner Siler met with Diana (Landsverk) and she agreed to help us out,” Kesling said. “They (DMC) have their own transport service now and she was willing to help us out because she wants to help the county as much as she can and help save the Randolph County EMS by offering transports again.”
Kesling said Landsverk offered the Randolph EMS runs to the northern part of the state, including locations such as Clarksburg, Fairmont and Morgantown.
“EMS couldn’t have survived without getting the transports back,” Kesling said. “Right now the EMS is still hurting, though, because we went so long without the transports. And that is why we are trying for a levy during the November election. If we don’t get it passed, we won’t have a Randolph County EMS.”
During the Randolph County Commission’s last meeting, Kesling, Siler and Interim Commissioner Kenna Barger unanimously approved running the levy on the General Election ballot in November.
“There’s a lot of people out there that will always be negative on anything that you do and they have already started with the levy,” Kesling said. “They are putting out false information about it to try and scare people. But what should really scare people is the fact that if we don’t pass this levy, we won’t have a Randolph County EMS. And then what are we going to do?”
Kesling said the Randolph County Commission has scheduled round table discussion meetings with the public on Sept. 2 (at Elkins EMS), Sept. 16 (at Harman EMS) and Sept. 30 (at Mill Creek EMS).