The EMS has a Director that works for the Goodland Hospital, all the rest are different kinds
of volunteers. Some are First Responders who will go to an accident or medical emergency scene
before the ambulance can arrive. Others work mainly with the ambulance crew. When assigned to be
on call for the ambulance the ones being on call are paid $1.00 an hr to be on call. Then I
believe there are different pay scales depending upon the type of call you may have to take. For
instance when transporting a patient to or from another medical facility from Denver, Hays,
Burlington, etc the pay is higher than a call to transport a patient from their home in Goodland
to the hospital. So the ones working the EMS are volunteers but also receive some pay to be on
ambulance call. Not a lot by any means but better than nothing to have to keep your time open for
any possible emergency.
As far as I know when someone wants to become an EMT they have to take the training course on
their own time without any pay. The ones taking the course and then working with the EMS do so
because they like the work and want to help people. It is a job where you need to have alot of
caring to go to bloody accidents and attend to the injuries. Many people don't want anything to
do with anyone else's blood. The EMT's must take precautions just for their own physical well
being. The same as giving CPR to heart attack or severe trauma victims. It is now considered
very unsafe for unprotected mouth to mouth breathing given to the victim. EMT's now have
different kinds of equipment to use to protect themselves from transmitted diseases, yet still
give good care to any victim.
Some of the types of calls the EMS/Ambulance gets paged out to handle include the following:
Whenever dispatch gets a call that needs an ambulance they will page out a Med Unit. During the
initial page the basic information is given such as the location the EMS is needed. The patients
main complaint, the age, and sex of patient. With knowing the complaint, age, and sex the
EMS personal are able to have a reasonable idea of the possible causes of the complaint. After
the ambulance is in route to the call if dispatch has further information they will then tell
the EMT's. A lot of times this information comes from officers that have arrived at the call
before the ambulance. Other times just from information the dispatcher has obtained by talking to the patient or
a family member.
If the call is because a possible injury accident was reported the dispatcher may not know how
many or if anyone is actually injured until more information becomes available. The ambulance
gets paged any time it is unknown if there are injuries in an accident. There have been
times a citizen using a cell phone will call in something they think was an accident on I-70. They
haven't stopped to do any real checking but feel they must report something they have seen. Usually
it is an accident but not always.
One time a citizen reported seeing tire tracks running off the east bound lanes of I-70 into
the south ditch and they saw a vehicle way down off the roadway. The EMS and Rescue Units were
paged out for this possible injury accident. What they found were some old tracks and down below
was a farmers irrigation engine. Alls well that ends well, everyone was glad no one was hurt but
it is a rough job that gets you called out of a nice warm bed on a cold winter's night to save
an irrigation engine! That particular night no Sherman County Trooper was available so the
Cheyenne Co Trooper had also been called out to come work the accident. He had gotten within a
few miles of the scene when he was informed it had been an irrigation engine. But until someone
actually makes it to the scene of a report you never know for sure what you have.
The EMS get paged out are for stand bys at any structural fire. They will provide
medical treatment if needed to the firefighters or any victims that may have been trapped in the
fire. Whenever there is a 'Flight for Life' needed the EMS get paged to go to Renner Field
to pick up the medical personal that go with the flight. They bring them to the hospital so the
FFL crew can get the patient ready for transporting. Then the EMS will take the FFL personal and
patient back to Renner Field and transfer the patient to the plane. Occassionally a special
medical team will be called in to remove organs from someone who has made an organ donation.
The EMS pick this team up from Renner Field and transport the team to the hospital.
Later they return to take the team back to Renner Field. The EMS have stand bys for a lot of the
school sporting events and at the fairgrounds during Stock Car Races and Fair Week.
A person could have a fulltime job as an EMT but the pay wouldn't be great. I think the majority
of EMT's have other fulltime jobs and work the EMS more to be a help than to draw a paycheck.
Same with all the first responders located through out the county. They do it to help their
neighbors and others. Some start a medical career as EMT's then go on to become nurses and
doctors. I think Sherman County has a very good EMS system, I would say the average time in
getting an ambulance to rolling on a call is about 6-7 min. from the time the first page goes
out and the EMT's have made it to the hospital and leaving with the Med Unit. That is moving
pretty fast to get called out of bed get dressed and to the hospital from your home and in route
to the call in 6-7 minutes time.
Back to Top
This is just the basics of the Sherman County E.M.S., I hope to have further information available
and posted to this site.
At the time of this writting, 11-03-05 the following is the list of EMS Personel and Units.
- EMS #29..............Director Bruce Gleason
- EMS #07..............Penny Tedford
- EMS #12..............Erica Arntt
- EMS #13..............Bob Daise
- EMS #15..............Michelle Luther
- EMS #16..............Kelly Rodgers
- EMS #17..............Eric Gray
- EMS #18..............Debbie George
- EMS #22..............Alan David
- EMS #23..............Dawn/Justin Stasser
- EMS #28..............Shelli Stephens
- EMS #30..............Rebecca Koel
- EMS #34..............Susan Adams
- EMS #35..............David Griffith
- EMS #37..............Wendy White
- EMS #38..............Terry Ross
- EMS #39..............Cynthia Gutsch
- EMS #40..............Leslie Farley
- EMS #41..............Nina Mersch
- EMS #42..............Steve Evert
- EMS #43..............Oura Garrett
- EMS #47..............Debra Fahey
- EMS #49..............Lake Mellott
Kanorado Responders
Bob Daise
Jerry Webber
Ruleton Responder
Eric Gray
Northeast County Responder
Shelli Stephens
Northwest County Responders
Penny Tedford
Kelly Rodgers
Caruso Responder
Steve Evert
South Central Responder
Greg Nemechek
Ambulances
Med 1....Stationed in Goodland
Med 5....Stationed in Goodland
Med 3....Stationed in Kanorado
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