A representative of Lutheran EMS updated the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Board Tuesday on the trends they are seeing in calls.
During the Lutheran EMS October response report, Alicia Mediano, director of operation clinical management for Lutheran EMS, said Lutheran saw a lot of medical calls. There hasn’t been a lot of COVID-19 calls, which has spiked around this time in the past few years. Instead, what Lutheran has been seeing is very sick people.
Mediano said what Lutheran EMS has seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic is that people are putting off treating their chronic issues and doing so has caught up to people and “they’re very, very sick people, critical patients.”
In October, there were 483 calls and 369 were transports.
She also said Lutheran EMS’ dispatch time to being back in service is under the national average. She said the time from dispatch to being at the location is 4 minutes and 36 seconds.
There also were 12 mobile integrated health calls. At November’s meeting, she described the mobile integrated health program as being similar to Warsaw Fire runs with the CARES (Community Assistance Resources Emergency Services) program. Lutheran EMS is focusing more on the medical health and trying to bridge the gap between in-patient and out-patient care, especially for some of the people that aren’t able to afford home health agencies.
Also, WWFT Fire Chief Garret Holderman said he thinks the CARES program has reduced new calls. He said the community is growing, but the CARES program is helping meet community needs.
EMS Chief Chris Fancil said there was CARES training for the Warsaw Police Department Monday to make integration with the department more official. The training was to help the department understand what to look for and when to call to get CARES involved.
He said the idea from Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer when the CARES program started was to pull WPD off of things “they’re really not supposed to be dealing with and let us deal with it and get them back on the road.” He said he expects to see more CARES calls.
In other business, the Board:
• Heard from Holderman that WWFT had 316 calls in October, of which 44 were fire-related.
The most noteable fires were a combine fire at 14 W. CR 400, a mulch fire/gas leak at 2246 W. CR 100, a field fire at 5337 S. Country Club Road and a grass fire at 3869 Mandy Court. WWFT assisted the Claypool Fire Department with a fire on CR 100.
• Approved the annual contract with Pro Air for maintenance on the air tanks for the Dive Team. The maintenance fees are paid by WPD and WWFT. The fire department pays $2,788 while WPD pays $1,300. The Board of Public Works and Safety already approved it.
