Grundy County EMS

05/25/2026

This Memorial Day, we remember the incredible courage and selflessness of the military service members who gave everything to protect our country. We are profoundly grateful for their sacrifice.

If you are traveling home from holiday gatherings this afternoon, please drive defensively, stay alert, and watch out for emergency vehicles on the roadways.

05/24/2026

As National EMS Week wraps up, we'd like to take a moment to say THANK YOU to our incredible community.

From the treats dropped off at the station to the kind words and heartfelt notes, your support keeps our gears turning in the face of all the challenges we face.

We are honored and privileged to serve the people of Grundy County.

05/23/2026

Temperatures are definately moving back to the seasonal norms today!

B Shift found themselves a nice spot to grab a cold lemonade and enjoy some shade

05/22/2026

EMS is a career that involves long shifts, prolonged time away from family. Sometimes it's dirty and dangerous, and it has more than its fair share of mental and emotional stressors. It's also a dynamic, highly demanding field requiring a never ending study of medical knowledge, protocol changes, and technological advancements to stay current.

The Friday of EMS week is set aside as EMS Recognition Day, a time to shine the spotlight on the specialized skills and tireless dedication of the frontline providers, out there in our community delivering high quality prehospital care every day.

Thank you for choosing this path, and for all the hard work you put in to be able to take care of our community.

05/22/2026

EMS week has been full of celebrations, good food, and plenty of laughs. That still doesn’t stop our crews from training hard to provide the best care possible to our community. Today, A Shift ran mega codes to sharpen skills, strengthen teamwork, and make sure we operate like a well-oiled machine when our citizens need us most.

Behind every successful call is preparation, practice, and a crew committed to excellence.

05/21/2026

Day five of EMS week is Save a Life Day.

Did you know that the survival rate for cardiac arrest isn't just about how fast an ambulance can drive or what equipment is on our trucks? It depends heavily on the community.

When the heart stops pumping, brain tissue death begins in just 4 to 6 minutes. This mean's the longer a patient goes without compressions, the less likely they are to survive. If bystanders immediately begin compressions rather than waiting passively for EMS to arrive, the patient is three to four times more likely to survive.

You are the critical bridge between the moment their heart stops and the moment our ambulance arrives. When you learn Hands-Only CPR, the life you save is most likely to be a spouse, a parent, or a neighbor.

We are proud to announce we'll be joining the Grundy County Health Department on Monday, June first to offer "Hands Only" CPR instruction. Two classes will be held at the new Health Dept. annex, one from from 12 noon to 1pm and a second from 5pm to 6pm.

We want our community to be a gold standard for survival, but we can't do it alone. Let's build a stronger community, together.

When it comes to hands only CPR, quality compressions are everything. Watch this quick breakdown from Fire Department Chronicles to find your perfect CPR rhythm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H_XUaxrna8

215K likes, 5.7K comments. "Different songs you can do CPR to"

05/21/2026

We welcomed roughly 25 little patients and their parents for an evening full of smiles, checkups, and fun. We even had a few celebrity visitors stop by, including Minnie Mouse, The Hulk, and Stitch!

Our EMS crews treated everything from broken bones, sore backs, and injured legs to the flu, difficulty breathing, and even a few stuffy noses. Thankfully, every patient responded well to 50mg of giggles, a bravery booster, and a personally selected bandaid.

Discharge instructions included extra hugs, snuggles, and plenty of rest. By the end of the clinic, each stuffed patient received a Certificate of Good Health and a follow-up appointment for next year.

Our crews had just as much fun meeting all the different clientele and seeing the excitement on the kids’ faces. Thank you to everyone who came out and helped make our first Teddy Bear Clinic such a huge success during EMS Week Children’s Day!

05/20/2026

A huge thank you to HyVee for donating this amazing breakfast to our team! We appreciate your support.

We are fueled up and ready to go!

05/20/2026

Today is the day!!! The GCA Teddy Bear Clinic is prepped and ready for all our little patients from 4–6 PM at the Emergency Services Complex!

Please park on the east side of the building and avoid parking in front of the large garage doors, as our crews remain on duty and may need to respond quickly. We can’t wait to see everyone for a fun evening celebrating EMS Week Children's Day!

05/19/2026

Time once again for the Tuesday Tally!

Week of May 12, 2026 – May 19, 2026
Total Calls: 35
Local Calls: 28 , Interfacility Transfers (IFT): 7
IFT Mileage: 1,120 miles
Hours Out of Service: 29.5 hours

So far in 2026, we are averaging 34 calls a week.
On average, 9 of those 34 calls are IFTs. Weekly, IFTs represent an average of 45 hours out of service and 1,411 miles driven.

Managing this kind of transfer volume safely requires a deliberate focus on personnel health and strict risk mitigation. appropriate topics for Today, Tuesday, May 19: EMS Safety Day.

In a rural service where long-distance interfacility transfers routinely pull our crews out of the county for hours at a time, provider and patient safety is a core component of our daily risk management strategy. Two of our most vital local safeguards for protecting our crews, our patients, and the county’s fleet assets are the fatigue and environmental hazard policies.

The Fatigue policy involves a formula called the fatigue matrix, which acts to monitor and regulate crew exhaustion during high-volume periods. When a crew hits a specific threshold of consecutive hours of high call volume or intensive long-distance transports, the policy is invoked. This triggers mandatory down-time and pulls a crew out of the first-line transfer rotation to guarantee adequate rest before they get behind the wheel again.

The Environmental hazard policy establishes absolute parameters for when our ambulances can and cannot be committed to long-distance regional transfers during adverse conditions (like flash flooding!). We monitor live MoDOT road data and local weather advisories. Under the policy, if regional or arterial roads are designated as completely covered or hazardous, long-distance IFTs are immediately restricted until conditions improve.

These policies actively protect our personnel and our physical assets from increased probability of fatigue-induced error and heightened threats associated with high-risk driving environments.

05/18/2026

Each day of National EMS Week has its own theme, and Monday is EMS Education Day.

Clinical excellence in the field doesn't just happen. It requires continuous education, rigorous practical training, and an unwavering commitment to keeping up with the advancement of medical science. By investing heavily in the education of our EMTs and Paramedics, we ensure that our agency brings the highest level of care directly to your doorstep.

Learning never stops in EMS.

Today, we salute the EMS educators, instructors, and dedicated personnel who log countless hours in the classroom and lab to ensure better patient outcomes every single day.