One of the Warren County Commissioner’s stated priorities would significantly alter how emergency services are provided throughout the county.

Identified as one of the commissioner’s priorities for 2020, Commissioner Ben Kafferlin’s State of the County address presented this week outlined – at a conceptual level – those changes.

From the address: “Implementation of the EMS Task Force priorities, probably including an emergency services cooperative/authority and application for the Rural Emergency Medical Services Grant, along with county, sheriff-driven, QRS (quick response service) licensure.”

Kafferlin gave some details on what that priority might look like.

“The County would be applying to become a QRS licensed agency,” he explained, “primarily so the Sheriff’s Office could respond to more calls” in addition to cardiac arrests and overdoses.

“It’s not as if the county would have ambulances or something. And except for some equipment, which the EMS Council gave us a grant to buy, and obviously some staff time, there’s not much additional cost.”

The emergency services cooperative piece – derived by one of the committees on the EMS Task Force assembled to address these challenges – is a broader, systemic proposal.

“If there’s buy-in from municipalities and BLS (basic life support) departments, that would allow multi-department response on first dispatch, broadening the pool of initial eligible responders dispatched.”

“At this stage, we are getting feedback from the municipalities and volunteer agencies. If they’re not interested in adopting it, there’s no point in setting up the legal and 911 structures,” he said. “At this point, they’re really just concepts.”