Deaconess Illinois opens EMS building in Marion
FOX23 News at 9 p.m
MARION, Ill., (KBSI) — Deaconess Illinois Medical Center broke ground Friday on a new EMS building on its Marion campus, expanding emergency medical services in the region.
Hospital officials said the interfacility transfer service is designed to improve patient access to care by helping ensure individuals receive the appropriate level of treatment as quickly as possible, while remaining close to home.
Harry Brockus is the Chief Administrative Officer for Deaconess Illinois of Union County. He shares a new Deaconess EMS facility will be located in Marion and be large enough to staff a full EMS crew.
“Sometimes a patient will be dropped at a hospital like mine in the emergency room by the county ambulance but need to be transferred to a larger medical center for specialized treatment or surgery that we can’t offer them here because we’re a small hospital” says Brockus. “Our job is to stabilize them and then move them on to that care. That care can be Saint Louis or Evansville or Paducah. Two and a half, three hours of transportation time. One way. County ambulance services can’t be out of the county for that long.”
Brockus shares that this facility is meant to cut down on emergency response wait times, so they will not respond to 911 calls, but instead respond to all other calls such as immediate hospital transfers, giving the county ambulance more space to cover 911 response.
“So by bringing this EMS service on board, we’re going to be able to make sure that patients have equitable care opportunities to those transfers. So the same type of transfer access you would have in a larger community, they’ll now have in southern Illinois counties. So, we can make sure they get to those levels of care that they need to get to, to save their life or to be treated” says Brockus.
State Sen. Dale Fowler, State Rep. Paul Jacobs, Marion Mayor Mike Absher, city officials, advisory board members and members of the Deaconess Illinois EMS team attended the ceremony.
Hospital leaders said the project is intended to strengthen coordination of care, improve patient movement between facilities and enhance emergency response capabilities in Southern Illinois.
