2019 was a busy year for the Ada-Liberty Township Joint EMS.
Tom Miller, EMS chief, provide the Icon with several year-end stats, which follow:
The department received 527 911 calls in 2019 or nearly 1.5 calls in each 24-hour period. Of those calls the highest day of the week included Saturdays and Mondays, which received nearly 16 percent of all calls. Sundays were the lowest call day with 10 percent of the calls.
The 527 calls in 2019 was 60 lower than 2018.
Miller broke down the calls by type – description of the 911 caller:
12.3 % - Breathing issues
7 % - Chest pain
6.6% - Traffic accidents
7 % - General illness
Breaking calls into actual type reported by EMS personnel:
76 % - Illness
16% - Trauma
Of all 911 call one-half were made by persons 65 or older.
When a patient goes to a hospital, the patient gives a preference, and 94 % of preferences were to Bluffton Hospital, Lima Memorial Hospital, St. Ritas’-Mercy Health Medical Center and Hardin Memorial Hospital, Kenton.
The department responded to 52 mutual aid requests coming from Dunkirk, Alger and McGuffey. Ada requested mutual aid 28 times from area departments in 2019.
Miller has served as EMS chief since 2010, and has been a member of the department since 1999. Ken Cieplowski and Dot Jordan are the department supervisors. At the moment the department has 17 members plus two are in school.
"We are always looking for new members," he said.
Nancy Kindle is the department fiscal officer. Members of the ambulance board are Jeff Acheson, representing Liberty Township; Terry Keiser, member at large; and Shelia Coressel, representing the village of Ada.
The board meets the third Monday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the station on Gilbert Street.
The squad’s most recent levy was in 2019, which was a five-year renewal generating 1 mill per year or $70,680 per year.
Two ambulances are part of the department. Those are a 2010 International, slated for replacement in June by a 2020 Ford. The department also operates a 2014 ambulance.
To visit the EMS Facebook click here.
