STAR expansion prompted by volume increase

Increased call volume in the area, not an agreement with any local facilities, is leading a Crawfordsville-based ambulance service to expand into Putnam County.

On Monday, STAR Ambulance announced it would be opening a Greencastle facility in March.

The vice president of STAR told the Banner Graphic on Wednesday that the decision to expand southward is based on the number of transfer calls STAR has been getting for Greencastle.

“For past six months, the hospital and nursing facilities have been calling asking us to do transfers,” David Peck said. “We’ve been coming there daily, sometimes multiple times a day.”

Peck added that there is no contract in place with Putnam County Hospital or any local nursing facilities. STAR is simply already providing the service in Putnam County and sees a need in the area.

“We’ve been now consistently doing a substantial amount of business for several months,” Peck said. “So we decided, why not get some people in the county and not have to drive people from Crawfordsville or Indianapolis into the county in order to do it?”

The desire for a local transfer service was highlighted late last year when representatives of Putnam County Hospital attended a meeting of the Putnam County Operation Life (OL) board and later a special meeting of the Putnam County Commissioners.

Hospital employees expressed their displeasure with OL over a particularly high-volume day when the ambulance declined a requested transfer in order to keep its last available ambulance prepared for any emergency 911 calls.

During the meeting with commissioners, OL Executive Director E.J. Claflin explained that increased budget constraints have forced the service to run fewer ambulance crews in recent years. At one time, OL had a unit devoted entirely to such transfers.

Now into this void steps STAR, whose administrators see their primary service being such facility transfers as well as any private calls that may come in.

“We anticipate the majority of the business will be transports for the hospital, transports for the nursing facilities,” Peck said.

Operation Life, in conjunction with Roachdale-based PMH, has the 2017 contract for 911 service in the county.

Peck said STAR has established a local number — 720-1281 — which is already set up to ring in to STAR’s Crawfordsville dispatch center.

No concrete date for the opening of the new station has been set, but Peck anticipates mid to late March.

Once the station is fully staffed, STAR plans to have two crews on call at all times. One will be Advanced Life Support, at least one paramedic, and the other Basic Life Support, two emergency medical technicians.

The Monday announcement came with the news that STAR is hiring for these positions.

Peck added that a location for the station has already been chosen. He did not disclose the exact address but said it is just north of downtown on Indiana Street.

Peck said the current tenant needs time to vacate the premises and then it needs to be remodeled.

STAR currently has two Crawfordsville locations, from which it services Montgomery County as well as Lafayette, and an Indianapolis station.