Abilene Reporter-News
TAYLOR COUNTY, Texas — A month into providing rural Taylor County with ambulance service, leaders of South Taylor Emergency Medical Service - or STEMS - say their new role is going smoothly.
Taylor County Commissioners in mid-October approved an agreement with STEMS for ambulance services in rural parts of the county. STEMS officially took over for MetroCare in those areas Dec. 15.
“Things are going great. We don’t have any long response times, We’re getting the crews some good experience, so it’s all going well,” said David Allman, STEMS director of operations.
Before the contract with the county, STEMS operated as a not-for-profit volunteer ambulance service based in Tuscola that started 20 years ago. All volunteers were licensed emergency medical technicians or paramedics. The agency provided EMS service to Tuscola, Buffalo Gap, Lawn, Ovalo and most of south-central Taylor County, according to STEMS President Tim Brannon.
Now with a wider coverage area and paid, fulltime employees, STEMS averages two or three calls a day, Allman said.
STEMS has eight fulltime employees and utilizes volunteers to operate two ambulances around the clock from stations in Caps and Tuscola. A third truck should come online next month or so, and will be stationed in Buffalo Gap, Allman said.
Before it added full-time employees, Brannon said, the service operated like a volunteer fire department: volunteers responded to text or radio 911 dispatches 24/7, traveled from wherever they were to the ambulance station and drove the ambulance to the victim’s location.
STEMS, which covered 236 of Taylor County’s 911 square miles and responded to about 300 calls last year, now covers more than 600 square miles, Allman said.
The new arrangement hasn’t negatively affected ambulance service within Abilene city limits, though there aren’t enough data yet to know if response times have improved, said Neil White, MetroCare director of operations. MetroCare is averaging 38 calls a day this month.
“We’ve backed them up on a couple of calls. Otherwise, it’s pretty much status quo for us,” he said. “I think the system is working just like it was designed to.”
The county set aside $200,000 in 2011 to help cover the cost of providing the service. Commissioners approved an additional $80,000 in October from a contingency fund set aside for that purpose, bringing the total to $280,000.
Brannon also plans to generate about $140,000 in revenue to help fund the service. Those funds, charges for the service typically paid by insurance providers, will supplement the $280,000 from the county.
The county isn’t legally required to provide service to residents in unincorporated areas, but county officials said they believe it’s in the public’s best interest to have such service.
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