By Melinda J. Overstreet
Glasgow Daily Times, Ky.
Glasgow, Ky. — As of today, Mike Swift has been director of Barren and Metcalfe counties’ ambulance service for 40 years.
Swift was working as an athletic trainer as a scholarship student at Western Kentucky University when he attended the second training program in the state for emergency medical technicians. After that, he began running the night shift for the ambulance service operated by Heady-Johnson – now Johnson-Vaughn-Phelps – Funeral Home in Bowling Green. The city of Bowling Green and Warren County Fiscal Court took over the service and based it at the Bowling Green-Warren County Hospital.
He continued working there until Terry Houchens with Glasgow’s Hatcher & Sadler Funeral Home, who had been in EMT classes with Swift, encouraged Swift to apply when Barren-Metcalfe County Emergency Medical Services advertised for a director.
“The rest is history,” Swift said.
Swift was the first person hired by the board overseeing the service, which went into operation Jan. 1, 1975, he said.
“Back then, the funeral homes provided the ambulance service, and they were wanting to get out of the business,” Swift said.
At first, five entities were part of the corporation – the cities of Cave City, Glasgow and Edmonton and the Barren and Metcalfe county governments. After the first year, Cave City bowed out because it felt like it couldn’t afford to contribute, he said.
The service had three stations – Glasgow Fire Department, Cave City Hall and Edmonton City Hall – and its office was housed, along with county government offices, on the first floor of the Barren County Courthouse, Swift said. It started with five ambulances and staffing for four, using one truck as a backup. Three crews were based in Barren County and one in Metcalfe County, he said, and only basic life support services were available. That means the staff – all EMTs because the title of paramedic didn’t exist yet – could only administer basic first aid.
In 1975, the service responded to 1,624 calls, Swift said, compared with more than 7,600 in 2013. This year’s total is expected to be about 1,000 more than that, but the service still had the same level of staffing until this year, when the board approved funding for an additional crew from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Now, a fifth ambulance runs part time, but the service has two others that can serve as backups.
The service has moved its Barren County base twice, most recently to its current headquarters on East Main Street, and has added a substation on Airport Road. Two full-time crews and one part-time crew are based at the headquarters, one is at the airport and one is in Metcalfe County still.
“Funding has been a challenge over the years and remains as one,” Swift said, “and the continual increase in the number of transports we made.”
The service was one of the first in the state to convert from gasoline-powered ambulances that got 5 to 6 mpg to diesel-fueled trucks, which get a little better than twice that mileage, he said.
“We saved enough money on fuel to probably buy another ambulance,” Swift said. “Of course, the ambulances were not so expensive then.”
Swift said a fully equipped truck in 1974 cost $12,000 to $15,000; in contrast, Assistant Director Tim Gibson said, it takes about $175,000 now for a fully equipped vehicle.
The first year’s budget was $321,385.59; this year’s is $3.3 million.
Now, the service provides advanced life support with paramedics and can perform services such as starting intravenous lines, known as IVs, for fluids or medications; administer medications and set up electrocardiograms and transmit the heart-rate readings to the hospital. The medical facility can use that information to call in a cardiologist and prepare for the patient’s arrival, he said.
Swift said he is working with the T.J. Samson Community Hospital to establish a procedure for when a patient is showing signs of a stroke. The ambulance could take patients directly to the imaging department to speed diagnosis and determine the best course of action.
Other significant moments in the service’s history, according to Swift, include when an ambulance with crew and other employees went to help with hurricane relief on the Gulf Coast and when the service participated in a national study to see whether administering a blood clot-busting medication before arrival at a hospital was beneficial under certain circumstances.
“They found it certainly did (help),” Swift said.
Aside from his director role, Swift has served in the elected position of Barren County coroner since January 1990, after serving two years as deputy coroner before that. He was reelected this year with no opposition for anther four-year term. He also served as president of the Kentucky Ambulance Providers Association for two terms.
None of the other original staff still works there, although EMT James Avery has been there since 1978, and he plans to retire in February, Swift said.
At 64, Swift said he’s given retirement some thought, but he doesn’t have a date set in his mind.
“The older you get, the better retirement looks,” he said.
Overall, “I’d have to say it’s been a very interesting experience, but by the same token, it’s given me an opportunity to associate and affiliate with some of the finest people I’ve ever known. The key to my success has been the excellent employees over the years that have worked for the ambulance service.
It’s been like a family experience. They are my extended family.”
©2014 the Glasgow Daily Times (Glasgow, Ky.)