Ambulance service facing challenges

When there’s a fire, you call the fire department. When there’s a crime, you call the cops. And when there’s a medical emergency, you call an ambulance.Help will arrive soon. Americans take this for granted.But it’s not necessarily the case.“I feel that when someone calls 911, they shouldn’t have to worry about if an ambulance is going to show up or not,” said Jeremy McGrath, proprietor of Chickasaw Ambulance Service.McGrath and his co-workers at Chickasaw Ambulance do everything within their power to make certain an ambulance arrives at every medical emergency that’s called in, but it’s not as easy as it used to be, especially in rural Iowa counties.Firefighters and law officers are considered essential in Iowa, by law.Unfortunately for McGrath, emergency medical personnel are not.Chickasaw Ambulance is a small, private ambulance service which provides emergency and non-emergency medical transports in Chickasaw and Southern Howard County, mainly to and from local hospitals.Chickasaw Ambulance employs two full-time employees, including McGrath, and uses 30 volunteers. It has three ambulances.
 
For more of this article, see Friday's New Hampton Tribune.