County Court, EMS Meet

Approximately 20 people attended a special session of the Glasscock County Commissioner’s Court Nov. 27. The court had said the meeting was intended to enable all those involved to discuss continuing problems between the county’s Emergency Medical Service and the county Sheriff’s Department. No one representing the Sheriff’s Department attended the court’s meeting, although Sheriff Royce “Booger” Pruit, at his request, had met privately with some of the EMS volunteers earlier in the morning.

At the court’s meeting, Kenny Batla, acting as spokesman for the EMS, read a prepared statement in which the volunteers outlined their concerns regarding the county’s emergency response system.  According to the statement, the volunteers had thought things were headed in the right direction when the county decided, months ago, to have Martin County answer Glasscock County’s 911 calls. However, the volunteers’ statement says that due to problems encountered during the past two months “... it is evident to us that there is still a communication breakdown. It appears to the EMS that the breakdown is occurring in the Garden City Sheriff’s Office (GCSO).”

Response Protocol Outlined

The volunteers’ statement outlines the protocol for emergency medical response as the EMS volunteers understand it: A Glasscock County 911 call is received and answered by Martin County, which then activates the EMS in Glasscock County by paging all Emergency Medical Technicians and phoning the GCSO. Responding EMT’s are to call the GCSO by telephone to notify them that EMT’s are responding to the page. The EMT’s notify the GCSO by radio when the ambulance is leaving the ambulance barn. The GCSO is to respond back to the EMT’s by radio. The EMT’s also radio the GCSO when they reach the scene, when they leave the scene, and notify the GCSO as to which hospital they are in route to. EMT’s also notify the GCSO when they arrive back at the ambulance barn. According to the statement, the GCSO is to respond back to the ambulance by radio with each of these situations.

System Breakdowns Alleged 

The volunteers’ statement goes on to describe what it terms four “breakdowns in the system” between Aug. 28 and Oct. 30. Two of the incidents involved either delayed radio response or no radio response at all, from the GCSO, and two involved the GCSO sending out the wrong pager tone, resulting in unnecessarily slow EMS response, according to the statement.

In part, the statement said that volunteers’ frustrations are such that many are considering leaving the volunteer service.

Volunteers at the meeting seemed in agreement that the hardware is working (radios, pagers, phones), and that modern technology, such as call forwarding, is in place. They also agreed there is no problem with 911 calls being answered in Martin County.

At the meeting, some people said the county needs to hire it’s own dispatchers, who would be on duty around the clock. Several said volunteers need to be in communication with a dispatcher during emergencies, for a variety of reasons. County Judge Wilburn Bednar said it would cost the county at least $100,000 annually to staff a 24-hour dispatch service.

Things Work from 8 to 5

Others said the system can work without more county employees. Mitchell Jansa said things work fine when the sheriff’s office is open, and that the system can work at other times as well, as it usually has in the past.

Harold Hoelscher agreed that things have generally worked well in the past, but said that in order for the system to work, someone must answer calls to the sheriff’s department. He said an emergency call may not be a medical situation at all, but could be a robbery, or something else. “We must be able to get the sheriff’s department,” he said.

Pruit Assures Department Response

Batla told the group at the meeting that Sheriff Pruit had assured the EMS group, in their private meeting earlier, that someone will answer all calls to the sheriff’s office in the future, and if not,  “something will be done.”  Cecilia Schwartz said Sheriff Pruit said there was no reason that he can’t be reached. Schwartz said Pruit gave the EMT’s a list of 10 cell phone numbers to use if EMT’s need them. Several EMT’s said they appreciated the phone numbers, but said there is not enough time on ambulance runs to call multiple numbers.

The commissioners’ court took no action in the matter, but Bednar expressed the court’s support of the emergency volunteers. He said if the volunteers’ talk with Pruit and the additional phone numbers he gave them don’t solve the problems, “We will need to go in a different direction.”

Sheriff Meets with Commissioners

A few days later, on Dec. 4, the county court met with Pruit in executive session (closed to the public). According to the Glasscock County Clerk’s minutes of the meeting, the court took no official action. No details of the meeting were available.

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