Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon Community Ambulance Team responded to 625 calls last year, including 389 911 calls, and 236 patient transfer calls. That’s according to SCAT’s Annual Report, which was presented to the Sheldon City Council at Wednesday’s meeting. The 2018 total is an increase from 549 calls in 2017.
SCAT Director Kevin Miller reported to the council that the SCAT team in 2018 was comprised of 29 SCAT members, including RN, Medics, AEMTs, EMTs, EMRs and Drivers, along with two high school students. That number is three less than 2017, when SCAT had 32 members.
Miller also discussed his vision of SCAT’s future, which includes increased membership, more paid staff members, and increased service area and an increased fleet of ambulances. He says SCAT currently has two ambulances, with SCAT 1, the newer of the two, having 42-thousand miles on its odometer, and SCAT 2, which has 116-thousand miles.
Miller told the council that there have been several times when the current ambulances were staffed with two SCAT members instead of the traditional three-person staff, due to some scheduling conflicts. He went on to point out that there are times when both SCAT 1 and SCAT 2 are out of town on patient transfers. That was one of the reasons, he said, that SCAT was asking the council to purchase a third SCAT unit for about $200-thousand, rather than rotating the current SCAT 2 out of the rotation when a nwe ambulance is purchased. He said a third ambulance would assure that there would always be at least one ambulance in Sheldon at any given time. Miller told the council that he would also like to see SCAT have one or two additional full-time paid SCAT members within the next two to three years to help alleviate the volunteer scheduling issues. He said that, along with the additional ambulance, would be even more important in covering calls from the Archer ambulance district.
When asked where a third ambulance would be housed, Miller said that, ideally, they would take over the garage bay that currently houses the Sheldon EMA’s response vehicle, or at the Sheldon Fire Department if they have extra space.
