Operation Life celebrates 40 years of service

Friday, October 3, 2014
The equipment and uniforms have changed since this Operation Life shift change in 1977, but the organization's commitment to providing emergency medical services to Putnam County has remained constant.

The date was May 7, 1974. The DePauw Fire Company had its first medical response for a sick child who had the mumps. These early volunteer students had trained in emergency medical services by studying the initial EMS textbook as it was being written.

Operation Life formally split from the DePauw Fire Company and was incorporated on Oct. 2, 1974, as a separate entity.

Now 40 years later, Operation Life, or "OL," is still providing emergency services not just for campus or Greencastle, but all of Putnam County.

"I don't know that any of the original or early members could have foreseen that OL would be the county's fixture for EMS and the success it was," Executive Director Kraig Kinney said. "But their vision lives on in the runs we do every day."

For their efforts as one of the first rural ALS providers in the state if not the nation, OL received the Governor's Honor Award from Gov. Otis Bowen as well as publicity from newspapers as far away as The New York Times.

Today, Operation Life does about 4,000 responses with around 3,200 transports annually. These include emergency responses, non-emergency responses, transfers from Putnam County Hospital to specialty hospitals and non-emergent extended care facility transports.

With a fleet of six ambulances, two support vehicles and a staff of around 50 paid and volunteer members, Operation Life works to meet its vision of quality pre-hospital emergency care for those residing in or even passing through Putnam County.

Kraig Kinney has served as the Operation Life Executive Director for nearly a decade, but will be leaving the organization in a few weeks.

"Operation Life is a non-profit with the primary goal of serving the pre-hospital needs of those in our area," Kinney said.

Operation Life is governed by the executive director with board of directors oversight made up of community members that donate their time to polish and facilitate the vision of quality pre-hospital healthcare.

Besides the fleet and dedicated staff, the organization has a main station in Greencastle built under the vision of Executive Director Dawn Broughton in 2000 as well as two substations built in Bainbridge and Cloverdale under Kinney.

Operation Life survives through billing for services for transports but also through a county contract fee of $80,000. This fee has been unchanged for the past five years. In the early 1980s, the subsidy was also $80,000. Based upon inflation, the current $80,000 fee is the equivalent of $16,500 in 1974 or would be $225,000 today if adjusted for inflation since 1980.

"Finances are a big struggle as with most EMS providers these days," Kinney said. "One of the nation's largest ambulance providers, Rural Metro, has experienced a bankruptcy and also cut its Indiana operations."

Leon "Harve" Bell came to Operation Life as one of its first paramedics in the mid 1970s and remains a part-time paramedic with OL to this day.

Despite the fact that Operation Life will be celebrating its 40 years of service over the next year, it will also face some new challenges, namely new leadership. Director Kinney is leaving in a few weeks to pursue employment with the St. Vincent Hospital system in Indianapolis.

"After closing in on a decade of service as director and 24 years as an employee, the time felt right to transition to a new career with new challenges," Kinney said.

Kinney began as director on Dec. 2, 2004, and will celebrate 24 years with OL on Dec. 1. He has been named interim director on a part-time basis, pending the hiring of a suitable replacement.

"Organizations change over time and OL has the fundamentals to weather this change," Kinney said. "Oddly, Dr. Tom Graffis was president at the time of the Articles of Incorporation in 1974 and he remains on our board as secretary to this day -- so he would be the mainstay."

Kinney also notes that some 13 staff members have been with Operation Life for greater than 10 years, including Leon "Harve" Bell who is a part-time paramedic who was one of the first paramedics in the mid 1970s.

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  • I was a student at DePauw when OL started. I knew some of the first EMT''s. I believe one of the original gang was a combat medic in Vietnam. I can see his face in my minds' eye, I think his name was Doug, but I am not sure. That early bunch were interesting to say the least. I hope they have another 40 years of success.

    -- Posted by donantonioelsabio on Sat, Oct 4, 2014, at 10:48 PM
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