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Jefferson County Ambulance Service
“Setting the standard for rural EMS in Kansas”
Jefferson County Ambulance Service (JCAS) is a Type I, municipal Emergency Medical
Services (EMS) provider licensed through the Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services
(KSBEMS). JCAS covers all of Jefferson County, an area of 536 sq. miles. JCAS employs
eight full-time personnel, six full-time crew personnel, one full-time billing manager
and a full-time director. Additionally, JCAS has sixteen dedicated part-time personnel.
JCAS operates four ALS Ambulances out of two stations, one of which is the on-duty
double paramedic crew. The primary station is in the City of Oskaloosa and the second
station in the City of Meriden. These stations are commonly referred to as “EMS
1” (Oskaloosa) and “EMS 2” (Meriden).
History:
Due to many of the limitations facing rural counties and communities, the Federal
Government made possible the creation of rural EMS services through revenue sharing.
Recognizing the need for a county-wide ambulance service, Jefferson County took
advantage of the revenue sharing and JCAS was established in 1973. The service began,
like most rural EMS in Kansas, as a basic life support (BLS) agency comprised of
Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) on a paid and volunteer basis. Those dedicated
employees gave of both their time and efforts to provide the best service possible
to the residents of Jefferson County with little or no compensation.
With the advent of the EMT-Intermediate and EMT-I/Defibrillator certifications,
JCAS employees were able to provide an even higher level of care than was previously
possible, including the use of intravenous (IV) therapy and cardiac defibrillator
care. These additional certifications allowed for JCAS level of care to be raised
from BLS to Advanced Life Support (ALS). Even then, however, much of the work was
done for little or no compensation to the providers, including the expenses in the
acquisition of advanced certifications.
As times change, the expenses of providing EMS begin to exceed the resources available.
Additionally, the government informed Jefferson County that the revenue sharing
and government subsidy would be no longer available by the end of 1989. Seeing this
need, the County Commissioners discussed the creation of a taxing district to provide
the necessary funding to operate EMS in Jefferson County. On July 28th, 1989, Resolution
6, which established an ambulance taxing district for the purpose of financially
securing the future of EMS in Jefferson County, was unanimously passed. In doing
so, JCAS advanced into the world of professional rural EMS, providing paid EMS staff
supported entirely by Jefferson County. This marked a new milestone in the advancement
of care to every citizens of Jefferson County.
But the progression did not stop there. Considering the advances in medical care
and, most especially, pre-hospital care, the determination was made to begin hiring
paramedics full-time to meet the needs of the citizens. (In the state of Kansas,
Paramedics are certified as Mobile Intensive Care Technicians or MICT). In 1996,
by recommendation of the County Commissioners, JCAS hired six full-time paramedics
to cover 3 shifts and provide coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days
a year. The crews work 24 hr shifts, 8:00am-8:00am, on an A, B, and C shift schedule
rotation.
Once again, Jefferson County raised the bar on the rural standard for pre-hospital
care with the hiring of paramedics. In addition to the ALS standard of care provided
by EMT-I and EMT-I/D, Paramedics provide Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) as
well as the administration of medications, advanced invasive procedures for IV therapy,
airway management and other critical interventions. The medications administered
range in scope from respiratory and cardiac therapy to pain management and seizure
stabilization. Paramedics are also able to monitor cardiac conditions in both 4-lead
and 12-lead EKG settings, perform transcutaneous cardiac pacing (TCP) and manual
cardiac defibrillation.
Because of this history of encouragement and support from the Commissioners and
the citizens, Jefferson County Ambulance Service has been able to provide the highest
level of pre-hospital care to patients. JCAS strives, even now, to ensure that our
progression as pre-hospital care professionals continues to set the standard for
EMS in Kansas.
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