T. J. ROYAL
Edgecombe County Emergency Services leaders informed the Tarboro Kiwanis Club Tuesday night of the progress the county's paramedic and emergency services have made in the past year.
Edgecombe County Emergency Services Director Butch Beach and county Emergency Services Coordinator Mark Walters spoke to the changes the county's emergency services have undergone within the past year.
Walters said that it is "all about to change" within the next year.
The process started in July, he explained, when Edgecombe County Rescue Squad took over paramedic and transport services for the southern part of the county from Pinetops Rescue Squad.
Walters said there is now a rescue vehicle stationed at Pinetops "24/7" to respond to emergency calls. And beginning Thursday, bids are going to be taken for the construction of two emergency services buildings, one in Pinetops on property next to South Edgecombe Middle School and the other in Whitakers at the intersection of Speights Chapel and Seven Bridges roads.
Walters said that bids will be taken for the construction of the two facilities beginning Thursday, with an estimated cost of $1.6 million each. The construction will be funded by low-interest loans and grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the N.C. Rural Center.
Eventually, Edgecombe County Rescue Squad will become the county's sole emergency services provider. The West Edgecombe Rescue Squad currently services the western part of the county, and Edgecombe County has an agreement with Nash County Rescue Squad to provide services in the northern portion of the county for the time being.
One Kiwanian asked if the Edgecombe County Rescue Squad was under the county's supervision, and Walters said they were an individual organization separate from the county, but franchised to operate emergency services within Edgecombe.
In a February 2007, emergency services study commissioned by the county to a Maryland company, the EMSSTAR report recommended that the county provide emergency services and transportation on its own.
Walters said that, however, "right now is not the time for the county to hand over" the millions of dollars needed for it to provide the service itself.
Tarboro Kiwanis Club President Ronnie Daughtry asked Walters about if fees for emergency service transportation had gone up recently. Walters said that for a rescue squad truck to pick up a residence, the base fee is $250, with $7.50 charged per mile for transportation to a medical facility.
He explained that the Edgecombe County Rescue Squad, and other emergency service franchises like it, are stand-alone entities and have to pay for the medicines themselves that are used during transport. They have to recoup the expenses for those medicines at a rate that Medicare would pay for an eligible patient, Walters added.
Beach said that with the progress that has been made in the county's emergency medical transportation services within the past 15 years is "just short of a miracle."
The progress means that people who "would've died" over the course of their transportation to a medical facility are now able to make "a full recovery," he added.
"We are making life better for a lot more people" in Edgecombe County when emergencies strike, thanks to the strides in the county's emergency services transportation, Beach said.
