Temporary solution to ambulance response times up and running in Wayne County

WAYNE COUNTY, WV (WOWK) — A temporary solution to Wayne County’s ongoing problems with emergency response times is now up and running. A county-contracted ambulance service called Jan-Care hit the roads this weekend, providing 24/7 service to residents.

“It’s hard for a dispatcher to have somebody on the phone saying, ‘Hey we’re trying to find you an ambulance we have not found one yet, we’re doing our best … and they will eventually find an ambulance but still there’s a prolonged period of time there,” said B.J. Willis, Wayne County 911 Director. “It’s just heart-wrenching and very stressful to them so to know that there’s an ambulance there, that we’re going to get an ambulance, that’s reassuring in itself.”

Prior to the county-contracted ambulance service stepping in on Sunday, volunteer fire departments were the sole provider of EMS services in the county.

According to Willis, problems with the Dunlow Volunteer Fire Department left their coverage area without EMS services since March 27. Jan-Care, which has a station located off of Route 152 in Genoa, will primarily cover that area.

“After Dunlow dissolved their EMS, that left Dunlow with no coverage, so the other agencies were having to go down south and they were missing calls in their own area because of that,” Willis said.

In the first 48 hours of being in service, Willis said there were 36 calls throughout the county, 12 of which Jan-Care responded to. The others were covered by crews in Lavalette, Ceredo, Kenova and Prichard. He said crews in Wayne did not cover any calls in their coverage area.

“It’s a help for the whole county, there will be less of a delay if one of the northern stations have to go to the southern part of the county,” said Ceredo Fire Chief Robbie Robson. “Keep in mind, this is only one ambulance, and this is a temporary thing.”

According to Wayne County Commission President Jeff Maddox, it costs over $30,000 to contract Jan-Care each month. The funding comes from the county’s general fund and opioid settlement money.

Maddox said the county-contracted ambulance will serve as a temporary solution until the more steps can be taken with the public service levy that narrowly passed back in May . The funding from that won’t be available until July 2025.

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