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Reynolds touts health care training during Humboldt visit

Governor sees new EMS building

- Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Jordan Erie, left, director of emergency medical services at Humboldt County Memorial Hospital, talks to Gov. Kim Reynolds Wednesday at the hospital's new emergency medical service building. Victor Bycroft, the hospital's chief nurse executive, listens.

HUMBOLDT — The ambulances of the Humboldt County Memorial Hospital are lined up in a new building, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Gov. Kim Reynolds wants to make sure those rigs, and the hundreds of others like them across the state, are always properly staffed.

Reynolds visited the hospital’s new emergency medical service building Wednesday.

The roughly $1 million structure has three drive-thru garage bays that can house up to six ambulances. It opened last year, and Reynolds was invited to see it then. She couldn’t make it then, but made up for that by visiting Wednesday.

Speaking to a small group of hospital employees, Reynolds spoke about the need to recruit and train future health care workers by starting with young people still in high school.

- Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Victor Bycroft, chief nurse executive at Humboldt County Memorial Hospital, greets Gov. Kim Reynolds at the hospital's new emergency medical service building Wednesday.

“We have to try to spark their interest,” she said.

She talked about a program at the Pella Career Academy in Pella in which students can train to become certified nursing assistants, lab technicians and surgical technicians. She said those students can get paid while they are training.

According to Reynolds, when the program started there was one student in it. The next year, she said, there were 20 students.

That program doesn’t train emergency medical technicians, but Reynolds suggested that eventually a similar program could be set up to do that.

She said money from the federal COVID relief law called the American Rescue Plan Act can be used for those kinds of medical training programs. She described it as “a great use of ARPA funding.”

- Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Three of the four ambulances owned by Humboldt County Memorial Hospital are seen in the hospital's new emergency medical services building. The building can hold six ambulances plus a small bus onwed by the hospital. The building has also been used for drive-thru flu shot clinics and drive-thru COVID testing.

She said she wants to continue to build those kinds of training programs.

“If this works,we’ll put more money into it,” she said.

About EMS in Humboldt

The Humboldt County Memorial Hospital operates an ambulance service staffed by both paid and volunteer personnel.

There are about 25 members of the team, including paramedics, emergency medical technicians and ambulance drivers who are certified in CPR. Jordan Erie is the emergency medical service director.

- Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Xavier Nicholas, an emergency medical technician with Humboldt County Memorial Hospital, talks to Gov. Kim Reynolds Wednesday in the hospital's new emergency medical service building.

The service has paramedics, who provide the highest level of pre-hospital care, on duty 24 hours a day.

It serves Humboldt and most of Humboldt County except the Renwick area. It serves as a backup to the ambulance unit in Renwick.

About the EMS building

The roughly 4,000-square-foot building was completed last summer. It cost about $1 million.

It has three drive-thru garage bays which can house up to six ambulances. The hospital now has four ambulances.

A fourth garage bay, which is not a drive-thru bay, houses the hospital’s bus.

The building has been used for drive-thru COVID testing and flu shot clinics.

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