MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The 2023 Community Report from Monongalia EMS details accomplishments and challenges over the period and shows the importance of support from the community and elected officials.
Executive Director Forest Weyen said the agency responded to 21,440 calls for service and was only able to bill for about 75 percent of the total. The 24 ambulances in the fleet, with an average age of 3.75 years old, traveled more than 681,000 miles, of which less than half were not billable, and administered more than 6,000 medications during more than 18,000 medical interventions.
“Out of those 21,000 calls, we had over 5,000 that were non-billable,” Weyen said. “So, we start talking about the impact of the levy dollars and making sure we’re here for the community when it’s needed—that’s a huge number of cancelled calls, no patient transported, or cancelled enroute.”
Weyen said in the Blacksville area, they average more than two ambulance runs each day, compared to nearly an average of 15 each day in downtown and the Evansdale area. The highest call volume has been identified in the mid-day time frame.
“In the middle of the day, between 2 and 5 p.m., we start to see four or five calls an hour,” Weyen said. “You see the stuff that makes headlines and drags down resources; it really can become an actual drain on the resources that we have.”
In 2022, the agency became an accredited training center for the state. That has increased their involvement in the community and allowed them to train other first responder organizations in the area. Weyen said the agency exceeds the national standards for mission lifeline numbers. In 2023, the agency provided more than 3,800 hours of training.
“Now, we have a very robust training schedule, both to bring people in from the public and to allow them to become EMS providers,” Weyen said. “As you can imagine, keeping 150 folks up to speed on continuing education and competencies takes a major effort by our education team.”
All employees, including Weyen, go through semi-annual training that is a condition of employment. The scenarios are developed, presented, and evaluated by the medical director.
“They go through our competency process, and our medical director signs off on that,” Weyen said. “It’s a really great partnership, a great use of resources, and that expanding footprint is a great resource for the county to have.”
Weyen said post-pandemic, they have stabilized operations and are ready to start executing the development master plan to better serve the 106,000 residents over the 366-square-mile area of Monongalia County.
“We’ve stabilized operations for the most part, but it’s time for us to start building the EMS stations that Mon County needs and deserves around the county,” Weyen said. “We need to develop a long facility plan for us.”