Coleman Creating New Goals For Fentress Ambulance Service

Daniel Coleman is putting together a list of goals as Fentress County’s new Director of Ambulance Service.

Coleman said in his first two weeks with the department, staff has worked together to create a “fine line” of goals for service improvements. He said top priorities are keeping ambulances staffed, recruiting, and retaining employees. Coleman said he is excited to bring in new ideas that the department may not have considered before.

“The quality within the department is great,” Coleman said. “We have a bunch of great employees. We have employees that are willing to do whatever they can for the service, as well as the community itself. We look forward to continuing those services and possibly enhancing those services in the future.”

Coleman said he spent eight years with the Cumberland County Ambulance Service and has experience in fire, EMS, and law enforcement. He said he has been impressed with the department in his short stint there, but the transition has been a learning curve. He said he walked in for his first day on a Monday and was presented with a budget that needed to be finalized by Friday.

“That was a major learning curve on the fly, is having essentially five days to sit down and develop a budget,” Coleman said. “You had a budget from last year, but there were things that we needed that I had to evaluate and look and see what we needed and what we needed to plan for.”

He said he most recently worked at the Vanderbilt Emergency Department before applying for his new position. He said he was interviewed by a group of commissioners and was called and offered the job several weeks later. Coleman said there is no room for stagnation in the Ambulance Service industry.

“Medicine is an evolving revolution where it continues to evolve daily,” Coleman said. “And we’re looking forward to progress with that involvement.”