Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service director Jacob Lindauer gave his annual report to the Lisbon City Council Monday, March 11.
Lindauer said the service covers an area of roughly 150 square mile radius as their immediate service area. When it comes to secondary service area, that expands significantly.
The ambulance service provides care to roughly 8,000 people, including the students at Cornell College.
The service was established in 1973, with first operations beginning in July 1974, marking this as their 50th year in service. They are a 501(c)3 organization that serves the communities of Lisbon and Mount Vernon.
Lindauer said the service has one of the most robust rosters in the state of Iowa at the moment, with 34 total members. Of those members, there’s a full-time director, two are part-time paramedics and 31 are paid on-call volunteers.
In 2023, the service responded to 992 calls. They were dispatched to roughly 1022 calls. Lindauer said the calls they were unable to dispatch to were in cases where they didn’t have enough units in service to provide care to the community.
“I always try to make sure we maintain a service for any 911 calls,” Lindauer said. “The only times we missed calls completely were when we had multiple units already out for service in our community on other calls.”
The average response time for the ambulance to respond to any page is roughly 10 minutes, while arrival at scene (90 percent) can take upwards of 15 minutes. Lindauer said the geography of the two towns impacts that response time.
He outlined the profits and expenditures of the service, as well as the typical reimbursement from insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and what is billed to a patient.
One of the goals for the service in the next seven years is a campaign and fund to build a $2.5 to $3 million building project to include the addition of a third ambulance as well as have more room for training for community and service members and more space for crew members to have when they are on call at the station.
The department is looking to continue their flexible staffing model, with the paramedics responding to calls in an SUV and volunteers in ambulance.
“That has really helped us prioritize our care to the right cases,” Lindauer said. “We’re better able to provide the right service of care for the patient and make sure that the patients who need the most critical level care have that available.”
One of the issues that the service deals with is the number of calls they receive for delayed care for items like strokes and heart attacks.
“Sometimes people are waiting to see if symptoms from a stroke will resolve on their own, pushing the care they receive outside of that immediate need,” Lindauer said. “If you have symptoms of something like a heart attack or stroke, don’t delay. Call for help sooner.”
Lindauer said he wants the service to continue to provide quality care, and that starts with bolstering retention of volunteers and recruiting additional volunteers.
“We want people to be here because they want to be here,” Lindauer said.
He also wants to have the service be a leader for the area.
“We know when we provide good service to our neighbors, that helps us build relationships that benefit the entire area,” Lindauer said.