RIVER FALLS, Wis. — A merger between Prescott’s Emergency Medical Service and River Falls EMS has proven successful after three months.
“We’re getting all the kinks worked out with our rotating units and getting all that streamlined,” EMS Director Jeff Rixmann told the River Falls Journal.
The merger has resulted in three ambulances that are staffed by paramedics at any given time - instead of a River Falls medic having to travel to Prescott for an ALS call. Prescott has a staff of volunteer, paid-on-call EMTs, and River Falls has two paramedics on staff every day, as well as EMTs.
Prescott’s station has also been upgraded to Critical Care Paramedic under River Fall’s license.
Both stations’ response times are now under 10 minutes, which is below the state average.
“That’s something we take pride in, and we let our staff know that,” Rixmann said.
Yet the merger hasn’t been without some “bumps in the road,” he said.
At first the two stations experienced some problems with dispatch. Each was being paged as if were a separate service, with one station receiving calls that the other didn’t – but those issues have since been resolved, Rixmann said.
River Falls and Prescott area providers have also been learning each other’s locations. Rixmann said the GPS system is unreliable, so EMS leaders put lot of time into mapping the coverage area and putting accurate maps into every ambulance.
“It’s still a learning curve, and we’re still learning and adapting, trial and error,” Rixmann said. “But we’re continuously monitoring everything.”