Grant funding supports Gibson Area EMS

GIBSON CITY, Ill. (WCIA) – New equipment, trainings and classes are now possible for Gibson Area Hospital thanks to $550,000 in grant funding.

The Supporting and Improving Rural EMS Needs (SIREN) Act is meant to help rural EMS and fire agencies provide timely care to their communities. Senator Dick Durbin introduced the bill back in 2018.

He talked with Gibson Area Hospital staff about the impact they’ve seen since they started receiving funding five years ago.

“Gibson Area Hospital has been one of the more successful applicants,” Durbin said. “They know what they need, and they ask for it in a very effective way.”

The act has funded agencies across Nauvoo, Amboy and Jerseyville, in addition to Gibson.

“Because we’re rural, and we don’t have a lot of [ambulance] runs, our services don’t necessarily produce a profit for the hospital,” Gibson Area Hospital CEO Rob Schmitt said. “We run the ambulance service at a loss, so these grant funds allow us the funds necessary to keep the equipment and the staff up to date.”

The Lucas Machine is one of the kinds of equipment the grant money has paid for. The hospital has about five of the mechanical chest compression devices.

“To give good women and men who are in these lifesaving situations what they need to save the life of somebody you love — it makes a lot of bad things about politics go away,” Durbin said.

Gibson Area Hospital covers about 1500 square miles across Central Illinois. That’s one of the largest areas in the state for ambulance services.

“These ambulances in rural America and downstate America have to be there,” Durbin said. “If they’re not there, you’re just not going to make it.”

Durbin said the next step is to take the funding nationwide. Durbin and Senator Susan Collins from Maine introduced the SIREN Reauthorization Act last year to reauthorize funding for the original act. President Joe Biden signed it into law last week.

“We’ll continue to apply as long as the grants are available,” Schmitt said.

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