PERRYVILLE, Ark. — In rural Arkansas when there is an emergency, it can oftentimes be challenging for ambulance services.
The CEO and president of Promed Ambulance, Ken Kelley, said the company is doing what it can to make sure everyone in communities like Perryville are taken care of.
"It's important to have that immediate frontline first response for life-threatening emergencies," Kelley said.
There are only two ambulance units in Perry County.
"There are days that we have one ambulance geographically covering three counties," Kelley said.
For emergency medical technicians and paramedics, seconds count, and handling distressed patients can be tough.
"Many of our challenges that come with that staffing are the long-distance transports that we are having to make outside of our service area," Kelley said.
With a high volume of emergency calls, situations tend to become more stressful because there is no hospital in Perryville.
"We have regional resources that are 20 to 30 and sometimes 40 minutes away is the closest hospital," Kelley said.
It is a decades-old issue and it also boils down to money.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, most of the staff has been working overtime, but the well is running dry because ambulance services did not see the extra funds made available to essential workers.
"Those dollars are not directed at ambulance services. we are probably the least funded segment of healthcare that has received any assistance funding," Kelley said.
Despite the shortage in staff and funding, he said the company will continue to respond to calls for help no matter how many they get.
But, they also need help from the public.
"The degree that we are able to continue to do that though is going to depend on widespread community support and support from our state officials," Kelley said.