From January to May, the Lawrence County Emergency Medical Service made 4,559 runs to area hospitals.

On the majority of those runs, the patients were taken to King’s Daughter Medical Center.

The county EMS allows patients a certain amount of leeway as far as the hospital they are taken to. In the western end of the county, the patient has the choice of being transferred to KDMC, St. Mary’s Medical Center-Ironton Campus or Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital.

In the eastern end the choice is between St. Mary’s in Huntington and Cabell Huntington Hospital.

An exception is if the patient is suffering a trauma injury, then the destination is automatically the trauma center on call that day. St. Mary’s in Huntington and Cabell alternate providing trauma care. St. Mary’s is on call on days whose date is an even number with Cabell taking the odd-numbered dates.

KDMC averaged 28.2 percent of the runs for the five-month period with March as its highest percentage at 30 percent. The lowest percentage for KDMC was in May at 25 percent.

The next highest average for runs went to St. Mary’s in Huntington at 23.2 percent. The highest single month percentage of runs for that medical facility was in January at 26 percent. The lowest was in April with 20 percent.

OLBH had the third highest percentage with an average of 9.6 percent. The highest month was in March with 11 percent. January came in second with 10 percent and the other three months runs took 9 percent.

Tying with OLBH was St. Mary’s in Ironton, also with an average of 9.6 percent for the five months. February had the highest percentage of runs at 12 percent followed by May at 11 percent.

Coming in last was Cabell with an average of 8 percent for the five months. January, February and March had 7 percent; April was at 10 percent and May was at 9 percent.