If ambulances didn’t exist….it’s not just a rural problem.
Ponder this with me:
You live in Sioux Falls with all the hospitals, bells and whistles, ambulances galore. Feeling the need for a change of scenery, you decide to take a trip out west. So, you hop in your cute little car and cruise towards I-90. Speeding up to 80 mph (maybe closer to 84, cause you can), and hit cruise control. You get about 180 miles out of town; the landscape is breathtaking, and your mind wanders. In front of you is a slow-moving pickup, so you tap your blinker, check your mirrors, and glide over into the passing lane. That slow-moving pickup to your right is quickly moving to your rear-view mirror, you glance up looking to see if you can switch lanes, and BANG, out of nowhere, your quick trip to West River looks more like a crushed right back bumper, sending you into a high-speed, uncontrollable tail spin, you over correct and begin rolling over and over in the ditch.
Confused and dazed, ears ringing, you realize you are hanging upside down in your car. You can smell gas, hot oil, and burning rubber. Moving your hand to unbuckle yourself, excruciating pain screams through your body. Your wrist is broken, perhaps from the airbag, perhaps from the rollover itself; all you know is it doesn't work. The throbbing now resonates in your brain. And oooh, your ribs. This isn’t good. You comfort yourself with your understanding that surely someone will come for you, someone needs to call an ambulance. Where is your phone? How do you get out of this dangling position? How did this happen?
Hopefully, the call gets made. Hopefully, there is a volunteer and ambulance team who can come for you. Hopefully, they aren't already 30 miles south going for someone else.
RURAL HEALTHCARE impacts ALL of US.
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This summer, I served on the Emergency Medical Services Summer Interim Committee. We took a hard look at our ambulance services, drawing on extensive public and expert testimony.
WE ARE IN TROUBLE, SOUTH DAKOTA!!!!
This isn't screaming fire in a crowded movie theater; this is legit. Our ambulance services are not classified as essential services; therefore, they are underfunded or flat-out unfunded.
In the rural areas, this is a life or death situation, and we must pay attention. Ambulance services got their start from folks throwing injured family members into the back of the truck and heading as fast as possible to the nearest hospital. Cool story. Let's not relive it.
Admittedly, I thought ambulance services were paid for by hospitals and cities...NOPE! It could be true in some areas, but it isn't true everywhere. In the smaller rural areas, these folks are typically volunteers who are literally getting paid nothing or very little to save our lives.
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???
Oddly, people aren't all that excited to volunteer anymore. So we are losing what we have.
In the next legislative session, look for honest conversation and creative ways to right this wrong. Like I said during committee, I have no idea where the funds come from, but we must do something. This is far too important to ignore any longer.
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Garcia called it “a disgrace” because EMS isn’t already defined as essential. “It’s a necessity of life. It’s like a grocery store, gasoline,” she said.
Republican Sen. Tamara Grove said, “We need to find the money.” She added, “I don’t know where it comes from, but I just think people have no idea the situation that we’re in.”
