Commissioner credits staff for honor

 

Lawrence County’s Emergency Medical Services has been named the 2012 EMS Paid Agency of the year.

The EMS was started in 2011 after the disbanding of the Southeast Ohio Emergency Medical Services in December 2010.

County EMS officials will receive their award at a banquet in Columbus on Wednesday.

“That is a terrific accomplishment by the EMS and their staff and a lot of credit goes to Buddy Fry and Lori Morris for organizing and keeping the books and being able to maintain the agency with a decreasing budget,” Lawrence County Commission President Bill Pratt said. “That is a great compliment.”

The EMS began with a $1.3 million appropriation from the county as part of its approximately $3 million budget with the remainder coming from patients’ accounts. That first year the EMS only spent $850,000 of that appropriation.

“We cut that to $1 million (the next year) and we appropriated (an additional) $144,000 or almost $1.15 million in 2012 from the county,” Pratt said. That second appropriation was to cover overtime.

In 2013 the commissioners appropriated $1 million with no additional appropriations so far.

The award is presented by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Division of EMS, and the Ohio Chapter of Emergency College of Emergency Physicians.