By Blair Miller
Independent Record
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mont. — The Jefferson County sheriff plans to use some of his department’s budget to restart a first responder medical training and certification program for deputies to be able to supplement emergency medical providers and help provide care when they are first to the scene of an incident.
“In many instances, our deputies are first to arrive at a critical medical incident. I can’t imagine not being able to provide aid that may directly impact whether a victim survives until an ambulance arrives,” Sheriff Tom Grimsrud wrote in a social media announcement Thursday.
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Both in the post and in an interview Friday, Grimsrud stressed that he does not intend for his deputies to replace any existing emergency medical response teams in the county, some of whom are volunteers, but might, for instance, help drive an ambulance so medical providers can all work on a patient in the back.
It is not unusual for law enforcement officers to arrive at a crash scene or other incidents before medical personnel in rural Montana because there are often lower staffing levels and longer response times at local EMS agencies that are largely run by volunteers. Many rural areas of the state are struggling to provide quick and high-quality emergency medical care and transportation with dwindling budgets and high out-of-pocket costs, as was highlighted last month in reporting by the Montana State News Bureau.
Jefferson County has a mix of licensed ambulances, including in Boulder , Whitehall and Jefferson City , that are staffed either entirely or in part by volunteers. In some areas, the fact first responders don’t get paid make it difficult for services to maintain staff.
Grimsrud said there are often calls to remote areas of the 1,659-square-mile county, bad weather or large crashes with multiple victims that often mean deputies are the first to the scene, and he believes having them trained to help would save more lives.
Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies already receive basic life support training for how to clear a person’s airway, stop bleeding and perform CPR, Grimsrud said. An emergency medical responder certification would allow them to do things like administer oxygen and perform more treatments.
Three of his deputies, two of whom are full-time, are already certified as paramedics. But he said he put a survey out to the department seeing if others were interested in additional medical training. Four or five who jumped at the opportunity will be the first to undergo the training, Grimsrud said.
At first it will be voluntary, but Grimsrud said he might eventually try to make it a requirement. There are 15 deputies in the county, 12 of whom are on the road. But there are 32 total employees at the sheriff’s office, and Grimsrud said he’d eventually hope to open the training to all of them.
Grimsrud said the initial funding would come out of the office’s professional services budget. He did not have an initial cost estimate on Friday, saying the sheriff’s office was still in its research phase. But after making his announcement on Thursday, several different communities and organizations said they were interested in helping train the deputies.
“The response has been amazing; everyone’s been very supportive,” he said.
Grimsrud is in his fourth year as sheriff but has spent 36 years in law enforcement. He said in rural areas like Jefferson County, volunteer ambulance and fire services “get pretty stretched out and thin,” so he has long been first-responder certified and has personally seen the benefits of having more personnel available for medical calls or injuries when needed.
“In an area like ours, we can provide so many more services for people in need, in crisis,” he said. “We do it for mental health, and we should be providing that service for people experiencing this.”
The struggle to maintain emergency services in rural Montana was the focus of recent reporting by the Montana State News Bureau. Musician Tim Montana went viral after posting a video online discussing his distressing ordeal of trying to get a friend’s child who had been shot in the head to a trauma center from the Big Hole Valley .
Butte musician Tim Montana shared a harrowing account of a friend struggling to access life-saving care. His message: Montana’s ambulance system is broken, and something must be done about it.
There was no transportation available from a hospital in Anaconda that could provide the specialized treatment the child needed, and they waited hours before a helicopter crew could come from Helena to take the child to a hospital here. The victim was treated and stabilized upon arrival. But he told the Montana State News Bureau he felt there were few things more important than being able to provide emergency services to everyone regardless of where they live.
A week later, he and more than a dozen rural EMS providers and patients told state lawmakers about their struggles to stay afloat, provide the care their communities need, and the wait times some patients endure because of a lack of people in the county who can perform such services.
The testimonials were eye-opening enough for the Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee to commit more resources and time over the next year toward a study on rural EMS services and potential legislation in the 2027 session to allocate state funding towards providers.
Grimsrud said he hopes that having more of his deputies trained will help the situation for people living in Jefferson County but not aim to supplant any existing services.
“It is not my intent to replace any medical service nor will any of my deputies switch duties at a scene where we are providing aid. Law enforcement is and will continue to be our primary responsibility,” he said in his social media post. “… We are servants, each one of us. We are committed to working together with all response agencies to provide the best possible outcome for the people we serve.”
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