DeKalb EMS Awarded FEMA Grant

The DeKalb County Ambulance Service has been awarded a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help purchase EMS equipment.
The operations and safety grant, in the amount of $24,000, was awarded through FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. The local match is $1,142.
DeKalb EMS Director Hoyte Hale said plans are to purchase two transport ventilators to enhance respiratory care of patients while being transported to the hospital and between hospital transports. “I am very happy that we have been awarded this grant. They are few and far between and getting fewer. We are fortunate to have received it. This will allow us to improve patient care in the county,” he said.
The application for the grant was filed last fall. Hale said he received word that the grant was approved earlier this month from the office of U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander.
It still may be a few months before the ambulance service actually obtains the transport ventilators. Bids have to be advertised and the EMS staff has to be trained by a certified instructor in the use of the equipment.