JCH Ambulance Service hopes to grow with additional equipment

JERSEYVILLE - The JCH Ambulance Service is an Advanced Life Support (ALS) service that provides primary response for Jersey County as well as secondary response and advanced care for Calhoun County and parts of Macoupin County. 

Jersey Community Hospital took over the day-to-day operations of Jersey County Ambulance in 1992. The service at that time was licensed for Basic Life Support with one ambulance on duty and one on-call 24 hours a day.  Over the years we increased our licensure to Intermediate Life Support and added a full-time crew and ambulance in Grafton area.

In 2001, service was expanded to Advanced Life Support. Today, the JCH Ambulance Service operates daily with two ambulances and two full-time crews, a third ambulance as a back-up vehicle along with a John Deere gator as a community response vehicle for off-road emergencies and community venues.

Recently the JCH Ambulance Association was established as part of a fundraising entity of the JCH Foundation. The purpose is to raise funds for supplemental equipment for the JCH Ambulance Service.  The Ambulance Association is one of the designated funds of the JCH Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  Jersey Community Hospital, along with the JCH Foundation, have financially supported the Ambulance Service significantly in past years by providing necessary equipment and staffing to allow for excellent service to our local communities. 

As our future needs continue to arise, the JCH Ambulance Association would like to purchase and obtain additional supplemental equipment to enhance our EMS services even more.  Some of our equipment goals include:

• LUCAS™ 2 Chest Compression System. This device is used when a patient’s heart stops beating and CPR is required. This allows for one person to provide other life-saving interventions.
• Stryker® Power-Pro™ Stretcher. This stretcher will raise and lower with the push of a button. This allows for ease of movement of a patient for our EMS personnel from the scene into and out of the Ambulance and into the Emergency Department.
• Stryker® Power-Pro™ Stair Chair. This chair allows EMS personnel to safely transport sick or injured patients up or down stairs in order to safely get them from their location to the ground level and into the ambulance.               

The JCH Ambulance Association along with the JCH Paramedics and EMT’s will be hosting various community outreach events and fundraisers for these future purchases. 

We hope that you will consider helping us reach our goals. For more information about upcoming events, or to make a tax-deductible donation, please contact us on Facebook at JCH Ambulance Association, via email at ambulanceassociation@jch.org, or by calling 618-498-8449. We greatly appreciate your support.  We are committed to provide the highest standard of emergency care services to the communities we serve.

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