New Ambulance Service Proposed for Lamar Area

A private ambulance transport service, Midwest Medical Transport Company, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is looking to establish a branch in Lamar. Representative, Sean DeLancey, the company’s business development director, met with the Prowers County Commissioners to provide an overview of the operation this past Monday, March 28^th.

“Lamar is a larger town than we’re used to operating in, but the community is a focal point for regional coverage in our four state operations,” he explained. “We transport patients from smaller hospitals to larger ones such as Pueblo or Colorado Springs and we’re employed by them on an at-need basis.  We’re not looking to take away anything from a local EMS service, so there would be no 911 calls we’d respond to unless there was a crisis situation such as a tornado or major highway accident where we would assist them,” he added.

DeLancey said his company’s next closest operation is in Scott City, Kansas. It has 70 ambulances and 20 stations that cover four states: Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Colorado.  The company’s logistics manager has been seeking a property for lease which would house the Lamar operation and there is interest in a site on West Highway 50 just outside of the city proper.

He explained that his firm has met with medical providers from Prowers Medical Center and added that a base of operations in Lamar would cut down on waiting time for service to come in from Rocky Ford and would be considerably less expensive that air transport.  “Some situations arise when the wait for ground transportation is so long, the only option for a patient is to be flown to a designated hospital,” he told the commissioners.  DeLancey said he’ll be briefed on the necessary ambulance licensing requirements for the city and county from the Lamar Fire and Ambulance Department.  He added that once a base of operations has been acquired, the service will be available in about 45 days using four full-time EMS providers and several part-time employees.  “We’ll start with one ambulance, but if there’s a need, we can bring in another vehicle and a separate EMS crew to man the second one,” he explained.

By Russ Baldwin