The death of a Moorhead woman started the conversation on Tuesday of the issues MedStat Emergency Medical Services faces while serving Sunflower County.
District 3 Supervisor Ben Gaston asked MedStat representative Eric Sprayberry about an incident where a woman’s family had to drive her to the hospital after waiting two hours for an ambulance.
The woman later died, Gaston said.
Sprayberry said Monday’s discussion was his first time hearing of the incident.
“That was that Sunday that y’all were all tied up,” Sunflower County EMA Director Mitch Ramage interjected. “They had two vehicles head-on in Sunflower. They had several calls that day.”
Sprayberry shared how the pandemic has brought about challenges for MedStat with its day-to-day operations.
“I don’t want to necessarily point the finger at COVID and use it as an excuse, but it changes things," Sprayberry said. “It changed a lot, not just with health care but with everything.”
Sprayberry said transfers out of the county to other hospitals are also an issue.
“A lot of the times we are being held up at that hospital,” Sprayberry said. “There have been some instances, with the Sunflower County ambulance of 8 and 10 hours before they would let us unload a patient at the receiving hospital."
MedStat has adopted a policy to offset that problem, he said. This policy allows an ambulance to leave after 30 minutes if the patient doesn’t have any life-threatening injuries such as heart attack, stroke or major trauma.
“Just the little minor illness or injury, the patient is awake and playing on their phone in the back of the ambulance all the way to Jackson,” Sprayberry said. “We do quite a few of those. We can find the workaround on those. To enact our policy and maybe put them in a wheelchair and let them wait until the hospital can get to them.”
Donald shared that he wondered if MedStat was the root of the problem.
“No shame in my game,” Donald said. “Even though we support you, but if you were not doing what you were supposed to do then we would be looking for someone else for the betterment of Sunflower County.”
Donald shared that another ambulance service wouldn’t fix the problem.
“It’s not per se any individual ambulance service,” Donald said, “I think the problem is what we have going on in society today.”
Donald spoke of a time his father needed an ambulance in 2016.
“I called the ambulance from my truck,’ Donald said. “When I got there, we waited about 45 minutes.”
Donald said his family had to wait because all the ambulances services in Sunflower County were busy.
Sprayberry also mentioned that MedStat often visits the prison at Parchman. Sprayberry said the prison takes their inmates to Clarksdale because that’s where their contracts are.
“We get to Clarksdale, and we’ve been held up in Clarksdale for three to four hours,” Sprayberry said.
Board Attorney Johnny McWilliams was surprised to hear this information and felt it should be addressed with state representatives.
“At one point they fixed Parchman’s budget, and they said they had their own ambulances to do their own transfers,” McWilliams said. “That’s the last thing I knew about it.”
Sprayberry said his company has also seen a decline in employment.
“There are a lot of people who worked in health care who have gotten out in the last two years,” Sprayberry said. “People who work on the ambulances and people who work in the hospital have just kind of threw their hands up and said, ‘hey, I’m not dealing with this,’ and they quit.”
Sprayberry said MedStat has openings in Sunflower County.
MedStat requires a high school diploma or GED with a clean driving record. They are willing to begin employees as drivers and sponsor them through EMT and paramedic school, Sprayberry said.
“It’s an opportunity right here,” Sprayberry said. “A good job opportunity. We have good benefits and everything. You know for people that live here to get involved and to help.”
The job consists of 48 hours a week with two 24-hour shifts.
“We have found out that it is recession-proof, and it is pandemic proof,” Sprayberry said.
