Emergency medical service response challenges are nothing new in Warren County – there’s currently a county task force digging into the problem.

But the challenge manifests differently in the City of Warren than it does in the surrounding communities.

For the city, it isn’t an issue of personnel.

With a paid department, responding outside of the city is an issue of cost and liability.

As part of budget deliberations this fall, Warren City Council held multiple executive sessions to discuss the EMS issue. But, according to City Manager Nancy Freenock, “there is nothing on the 2020 budget which would impact any changes.”

Freenock cited the county’s EMS Task Force and said that the “City believes that EMS response is best addressed regionally with all municipalities working together cooperatively.”

She emphasized that volunteer departments “should be applauded for the countless hours that they donate to make the system function. The volunteer companies must be part of the solution.”

That doesn’t mean, though, that the city isn’t looking into potential solutions.

“From the City’s perspective, we are looking into other EMS billing companies as it is possible that the company that is currently used does not do all that it could to optimize City revenues,” Freenock said. “Research in that regard is ongoing. And, if staff believes that a different company would better serve the City’s needs, a proposal will be brought before Council at the appropriate time.”