Members of the Lamar County Board of Supervisors recently got an update from Lifeguard Ambulance Service, which provides emergency medical services in Lamar County as well as 21 other areas throughout eight states.
Lifeguard EMS Chief Ben Sones stopped by last week’s board meeting in Purvis to discuss calls, response times and staffing in the county over the past month.
Lifeguard had 402 requests for service in the county over the last month, of which 295 were transports. Lifeguard’s average response time to emergency calls in urban areas of the county were 7 minutes and 7 seconds, while average response time in rural areas was 11 minutes and 43 seconds.
Non-emergency calls in urban areas averaged a response time of 9 minutes and 28 seconds, while response time in rural areas averaged 13 minutes and 48 seconds.
“The most common call we responded to during the month was common injury and medical calls,” Sones said.
To increase community involvement, Lifeguard members recently participated in a safety training class with staff from the Brothers-N-Arms gun range in Hattiesburg and held meet-and-greet events with several local businesses. Lifeguard also is currently working with officials from Merit Health Wesley to conduct training in disaster planning.
With the help of that training, all in-house Lifeguard employees are now up-to-date on the company’s required training protocol.
In addition, the company just hired a new paramedic, who finished training last week.
“So we’ll be full-staffed on paramedics,” Sones said. “I have two EMT openings – one of them also should be finishing up the hiring process in the coming week.
“The other opening I have for EMT, I’m going to leave open for now, because I have numerous part-time EMTs that are real good about filling those shifts.”
Lifeguard also recently added an automatic CPR machine – bringing that total to two – as well as an additional transport ventilator.
“We think that Lifeguard is doing an outstanding job,” Lamar County Administrator Jody Waits said. “In particular, we think Ben Sones is doing an excellent job as the chief.
“We’re very happy with the service they provide and the relationship that we have with them in Lifeguard. It’s a partnership, and (Sones) functions seamlessly with the county, which is what makes it successful.”
Lifeguard Ambulance Service also provides services in areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina.
