HARRODSBURG, Ky. (LEX 18) — The top managers at Mercer County EMS, which faced a “lapse” in services in December, no longer work for the privately-owned company. At the same time, a number of other staff members have left.
LEX 18 last week shared the concerns Wesley Hill, a former Mercer County EMS paramedic, had about the quality of care patients were receiving.
Now, he says three of his former bosses are off the job.
“I was told the director was terminated, the deputy director was terminated, and the other deputy director resigned,” Hill said.
The company’s interim director, Matthew Olmstead, told LEX 18 that the former director was not terminated and instead resigned.
In addition, Hill said he understands there has been a large exodus of staff over the past two days.
“I was told by employees of Mercer County that they had lost confidence in the private EMS agency, they lost confidence in the owner of the EMS agency, and they were unwilling to risk their license for a service that was unable to meet the needs of the county,” Hill said,
The company is now more short staffed than they have ever been, Hill said.
“They are going to find themselves in a situation where they can’t support the county’s needs for emergency services,” Hill said.
Olmstead, who said Thursday was his first day as interim director, would not go as far as to say there has been a mass exodus. Instead, he said “some” people have left and they still have enough staff to respond to the calls they need to respond to.
“The citizens of Mercer County have EMS coverage, we have competent people taking care of the calls,” Olmstead said.
While we were outside their building on Thursday, we did see an ambulance return to the building.
They have what’s referred to as “mutual aid” agreements, so if they are unable to respond to a call, an EMS service in a neighboring county can. In the past day, that’s only happened once, Olmstead said.
“I think this is the best outcome for Mercer County citizens, this will allow the county to find other avenues for emergency services,” Hill said.
Hill, who has worked as a paramedic for the past seven years, said he has never seen anything like what he experienced in the few short weeks he was working for Mercer County EMS.
In one instance, he said the company received an urgent call for a man who was vomiting at a nursing home, but an ambulance was not actually told about the call for 40 minutes. By the time they arrived, the man was in cardiac arrest, Hill said.
The interim director did not comment on the complaints that were made about the EMS service.
A representative for Mercer County Judge-Executive Sarah Steele said she is also unable to comment for this story.
“What is going on right now is not working,” Steele said at a recent fiscal court meeting. “We recognize we had a lapse in services for many days in December.”
Hill said the state inspector general is investigating the agency, and he has been in regular contact with them. We’ve reached out to the office to confirm but have not heard back.
Mercer County EMS came under new ownership in early Fall.
