An Open House and Free Community Appreciation Pancake Breakfast will take place on Saturday, September 21, from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM celebrating the Warsaw-Lincoln Ambulance District services for the past 50 years. Shawnee Masonic Lodge will help by cooking for the event that will be held at the District Headquarters located at 1206 Medic Drive in Warsaw. and Everyone is welcome.
“The separate Lincoln Community Ambulance and Warsaw Community Ambulance formed the Warsaw-Lincoln Ambulance District in 1974,” said Nathan Burton, Paramedic/Administrator of the ambulance district. “We always had a station in Warsaw and most of the time in Lincoln. Now we have a third one -- South Station at Jackman and Hwy 7.”
Burton has been with the ambulance district since 1997 and has seen it grow to 26 full-time employees. There are 40 Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and Paramedics, and technology has advanced so that crews in the field now have access to 12-Lead Electrocardiograms (which can sometimes identify heart attacks), advanced airway monitoring, and ultrasounds. Power cots and power loads that help prevent cumulative trauma injuries are also available to assist with moving and loading patients. Some of the previous old equipment was physically hard on those lifting patients.
There is one Response Vehicle in the district that is usually driven by Burton for crew back up and is also used in inclement weather. The district owns six ambulances with four on duty.
“Typically, we are one of the better covered ambulance districts in the area,” said Burton.
EMTs and paramedics go through in-house and external training and are qualified by the state. The EMT class takes two nights a week for six months and is open to anyone. Paramedics must take one or two years of training after qualifying as an EMT.
“Typically, we are one of the better covered ambulance districts in the area,” said Burton.
The Warsaw-Lincoln Ambulance District covers much of Benton County and a small portion of Henry County. Cole Camp has its own ambulance district. When patients are transported by ambulance, they most frequently go to Golden Valley Memorial Hospital or Bothwell Regional Health Center. However, patients can also be transported to Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach, Citizens Memorial in Bolivar, and Western Missouri Medical Center in Warrensburg.
Burton and Administrative Assistant Karen Orick run the administrative staff and there are three shift supervisors, David Jenkins, Marty Baumhoff and Jonathan Evans. Crews are on 48 hours and off 96 hours. One crew is always on duty while two others are off. The medical director is Dr. David Gustafson who has certification in emergency medicine and ensures that protocols are what they need to be for treatment.
There are six members on the ambulance district’s Board of Directors. They are Bill Dockery, Donnie Nichols, John Mehrens Jr., Sal Rios, Brooke Daleske and Scott Spencer.
