JOHNSON COUNTY (WSIL) -- Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) recently announced the addition of funds to the 2020 appropriations bill to help fire departments and emergency services.
That funding is expected to make a big difference for EMS services in rural southern Illinois. Director of Johnson County Ambulance, Dorothy Bacon, said she is encouraged by the possibility of grant funding.
"It cost a lot to run an ambulance service," said Bacon. "Equipment is extremely expensive, we just recently purchased what they call a power load system for one of the ambulances and that was $37,000."
Bacon is hopefull her community will benefit from the Supporting and Improving Rural EMS Needs act, also known as SIREN, which was signed into law last year as part of the Farm Bill. Durbin says the grant program will bring much needed funding to southern Illinois' rural communities through funding for conducting certfication courses, training and recruiting staff, purchasing equipment and even new ambulances.
"Ambulances are astronomincally expensive," said Bacon, adding that their last one cost them $120,000. "And they just keep going up. So, medical equipment is very expensive; anything that we can get that could help us with funding for that would be great."
Senator Durbin says the high cost of operating EMS services in rural communities prompted him to act, he adds that, "In many small and rural towns � EMS agencies are a life-ine in their communities."
In Johnson County, demand for that life-line is growing.
"This past year we hit a new record for the entire year," said Bacon.
the highest number of calls we'd done in ten years."
They responded to more than 1,400 calls, a ten-year high and a number Bacon expects to continue climbing. Those calls range from the minor to the major where her team's training can make a difference in saving lives.
"In my budget we do have money set aside for additional training," said Bacon, however, that training is largely routine, while the SIREN act is meant to make more specialized training possible.
In Durbin's announcement, he said, "EMS agencies today are tasked with ever-greater responsibilites-preparing for natural and manmade disasters and bioterror threats, supporting the chronic and emergency care needs of an aging population, and responding on the front lines of the opioid epidemic."
Bacon says her department already works with other EMS services and welcomes more training. "And anytime we can get together and train together that's great, because we work even better together."
According to Durbin, "first responders are often the only health care providers in their area" and this creates a challenge unique to rural communities throughout Illinois, which the SIREN act is meant to address.
