By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
Carter County Emergency Ambulance director Rick Loperfido has expressed concern over a recent incident that left one inmate at the Carter County Detention Center waiting for half an hour to be transported to the hospital. This occurred while the patient was having an active seizure, Loperfido said.
This, and other concerns with the jail – such as contested payments for transport – have led Loperfido to request a meeting with himself, the ambulance service’s medical advisor Dr. Spears, Carter County Jailer R.W. Boggs, and attorney Jason Greer, “to work on resolving some of our issues,” he said.
There have been other incidents where ambulance personnel have had to wait for a deputy jailer to be available to ride-along on a medical transport, Loperfido said. But the most recent issue occurred on November 21, when the ambulance service received a call about a female inmate have a seizure. Loperfido said that EMTs provided all the care they could, but the patient continued to actively seize while they waited – for half an hour – for a deputy jailer to be available to ride-along to the hospital.
Because the inmates are considered wards of the jail, and under the jail’s custody, they cannot be transported without a jailer present.
Jailer R.W. Boggs responded to the incident when contacted by telephone, noting that the ambulance service’s version of events doesn’t match exactly with jail records. Boggs said the ambulance service responded at 11:34 p.m. and were taken through the sally port into the jail at 11:38 p.m. They left the facility at 12:02 a.m.
Furthermore, Boggs said, the patient was alert and responsive following an initial seizure – not seizing the entire time as described in the ambulance board meeting. Boggs said there was no reason for the ambulance to have to wait, as two female deputies were on duty at the time who could have accompanied the patient to the hospital. Boggs said neither he nor his staff would ever actively hamper the delivery of medical assistance.
“We don’t override medical,” Boggs said.
Loperfido, for his part, said issues with transport times and costs aren’t unique to Carter County.
“It’s not just us,” he said. “All over the state there are issues.”
In other action Loperfido reported on mechanical issues with ambulances and gave an update on maintenance. He also reported the purchase of two additional trucks to replace older vehicles. Both vehicles are Chevrolet ambulances, one a 2012 model with 71,000 miles and the other a 2013 with 54,000 miles. The two new trucks will replace two older units with over 400,000 miles each on them.
The new units will not add to the service’s ambulance license – they still plan to only license seven ambulances through KBEMS – but allows them to keep another unit with a recently rebuilt transmission in reserve in case another vehicle should go down.
Loperfido also reported that they are in discussions with another paramedic who may be interested in coming on full-time with the service. This would put the service at full staff again, he said.
On the funding front, Loperfido said he and Valerie Nolan were working with judge executive Mike Malone to try to obtain more funding through the American Recovery Act to offset the service’s losses experienced due to the COVID outbreak – mainly in the form of salary expenses.
Loperfido noted that while the service was down by 10 calls for the month when compared to November of last year, they were still up by 560 calls over the 2020 totals at this time.
He also noted that overdose calls seem to be on the increase, and the service continues to respond to COVID related calls, as well as fall assistance calls, transport refusals, and other instances where medical care has been provided but the recipient can’t be billed.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
