Rise In Putnam Co. EMS Calls

Putnam County’s EMS has seen a 7 percent increase in calls over the last year.

Putnam County Chief of EMS Tommy Copeland said the reasons for the increase in call volume can be attributed to a number of things, ranging from population increase, to calls for overdoses, to simple convalescent transportation. Copeland said that despite the steady increase in calls, he feels they’re well-equipped to handle it.

“We’ve been able to increase our staffing a little bit. Overall, we’re keeping up. I do intend in the upcoming budget to ask for more staffing, just trying to keep up with this demand for responses and stuff,” said Copeland.

Copeland said while he feels they are stable on both staff and equipment, he does foresee the need to increase both in the future.

“What we’ve got, I think is pretty good. I see us needing to add ambulances–physical vehicles–in the very near future. That’ll be to help with the crews that we’re asking to get,” said Copeland.

While Copeland is looking to the future and preparing to add necessary staff and equipment, he said he feels confident in emergency personnel’s efficiency in response time.

“I think we’re handling those in a timely manner a majority of the time. Right now we’re keeping pace with what’s happening, but we’re going to have to continue to increase staffing and vehicles and all of that to do that.”

Copeland said the EMS Department has experienced an average 4.5 percent increase in call volume–averaging about 1,000 calls a year–since 2018.