If you experience a medical emergency, whether it’s an automobile accident, a fall, or chest pains, you hope that the first responders will answer the call quickly to assess your condition and provide the medical care you require. However, in many locations there is no quick response to medical emergencies – a rescue squad may be as far away as an hour’s drive. The residents of Coffee County and neighboring communities can rest easy, however, because the Enterprise Rescue Squad will likely be on-site within a matter of minutes. Captain Anthony Cole, a 55-year veteran of the Enterprise Rescue Squad, spoke recently to the Enterprise Lions Club.
Anthony noted that when he joined the squad at the age of 18, there were no female EMT’s allowed, and no one under 21 could drive the ambulance. In 1963 Lomax Searcy, of Searcy’s Funeral Home, was asked if he would be interested in having an ambulance service in Enterprise. He readily agreed and work began to establish what became the Enterprise Rescue Squad. An aging hearse was converted into an ambulance and volunteer emergency medical technicians began to respond to medical emergencies in 1963.
In 1994, the rescue squad became a paid service, and volunteers with the squad constructed the building currently located on W. Lee Street. The combined cost of the building and the land amounted to $850,000. The Enterprise Rescue Squad used to cover only the city of Enterprise, but the business has grown to cover all of Coffee County as well as Monroe, Clark, and Butler counties, in addition to Level Plains and part of Geneva County.
In addition, air ambulance service is available in most of these counties. PHI Medical Services provides the helicopter and the flight crew and ERS provides the medical crew. Four helicopters are available, with three in service all the time in different locations. Anthony reported that weather conditions can prevent the flight crew from responding to a call, but if they can get there, they will be there. The helicopter in Monroe County also picks up patients in Mississippi, and the local unit can pick up patients in Florida only if they are bringing them back to Alabama. Anthony noted that Ft. Walton has a level I trauma center, and it would be beneficial to both Alabama and Florida if the local flight unit could transport critical patients to that hospital. The rescue squad is authorized to pick up patients in Birmingham and return them to the local area.
Enterprise Rescue Squad is one of the few in Alabama that has technicians trained in critical care. All of the supervisors are Critical Care EMT’s, and the flight crews have one Critical Care EMT on board as well as an additional EMT. These specially trained responders can perform more serious procedures when needed to save a life. The supervisors all drive pick-up trucks with everything needed to provide critical care. Anthony reported that his training officer and the medical director for the flight division is a physician.
In providing critical care, EMT’s have the benefit of coordinating with the Alabama Trauma Control Center, which will tell the responders which facilities are available nearest to them. A Cardiac Response system is being piloted and may soon be available to assist EMT’s in these specialized cases.
The Enterprise Rescue Squad has diversified into several different divisions. The wheelchair van division transports wheelchair-bound patients to doctor’s appointments, dialysis treatments, and the nursing home, for example. Insurance will not cover the cost of transporting a wheelchair patient to an appointment in an ambulance, so the van will take them for $20 rather than the $1200 an ambulance would cost.
The former Tim Whitehead Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth building was converted into a maintenance building for the ERS where mechanics specially trained in working on emergency vehicles keep the fleet of trucks in good running order. The ERS agreed to do warranty work on the rescue vehicles and now service and repair vehicles for other squads in neighboring counties. A base model truck costs about $250,000 and that does not include all the special equipment and supplies that must be carried in an ambulance. So it pays to keep everything in “tip top” shape.
The billing division has also expanded and now has contracts with seven other agencies across the state to handle their billing needs. Anthony lamented that rescue squads are closing down all across the country. They lose about $1,000 on every run. Medicare will pay about $380 for each emergency run, and that does not even begin to cover the cost of gas, equipment and supplies, and personnel. Currently, three other counties in Alabama are requesting help from Enterprise Rescue Squad.
The Enterprise Rescue Squad has grown from an all-volunteer organization serving only the city of Enterprise to a paid organization of highly qualified emergency responders serving several counties in the state. You can rest assured that in a medical emergency, you are going to receive the best care possible.
Pictured is Anthony Cole, Captain and CEO of the Enterprise Rescue Squad. The Enterprise Lions Club meets weekly on Wednesday at the Enterprise Farmers’ Market. Lunch is served at 11:30, followed by a brief business meeting and a guest speaker. Visitors are welcome.
