GREENVILLE — Spirit EMS was busy proudly serving and protecting Shelby County in 2022, answering more than 1,500 calls for service as a family owned and operated emergency medical services organization.

Brian K. Hathaway, Spirit EMS president and CEO, has submitted the following report.

In 2022, while covering territory for both Houston and Perry Port, there were 436 dispatches that Spirit was called to handle. In total, Spirit responded to 433 of the 436 dispatches for the year, meaning Spirit relied on mutual-aid to handle 0.7% of its total call volume for the entire year, while covering 115 square miles of 911 territory during that period of time.

The Houston Joint Ambulance District encompasses all of Loramie and Washington Townships including the village of Lockington and excluding the village of Russia. The Perry Port Salem ambulance district includes all of Salem and Perry townships, including the Vvillage of Port Jefferson and incorporated areas of Maplewood, Pasco and Pemberton.

For the Houston Joint Ambulance district, there were 255 dispatches with an average dispatch to on scene time of 11.6 minutes. Despite mutual aid being called three times, there was only one dispatch all year long that Spirit didn’t respond, because of already handling another call. In total, there were 18 secondary calls in the Houston territory and Spirit EMS was able to respond on all but one of those. Spirit responded to 99.6% of its total dispatches in the Houston district last year and other neighboring EMS agencies were called to assist on 1.2% of the total calls. There were 75 more dispatches in 2022 than 2021, or a 42.7% increase in total call volume. Spirit also transported 59 more patients to the hospital this past year than the year prior. When called, 71.9% of the time the patient was taken to the hospital, compared to 69.1% of the time in 2021. The average number of calls by month in 2022 was 21.2, which accounts for an average of 0.7 calls per day and one transport to the hospital every other day.

For the Perry Port Salem Ambulance District, there was a total of 181 calls for 2022. Spirit responded to 179 or 98.8% with an average dispatch to on scene time of 20.44 minutes. Perry Port Salem Rescue responded to 89 of those calls or 49% with an average dispatch to enroute time of 8 minutes and an average dispatch to on scene time of 12.62 minutes.

The Spirit EMS statistics don’t include the additional 1,100-plus emergency and non-emergency transports handled throughout the county in 2022 because of evolving relationships with area nursing homes, hospice agencies, directed dial private residence requests, Wilson Health and Country Concert.

Since 2011, Spirit EMS has maintained operations out of its location at the Fair Haven Shelby County Home. In 2021, a second Shelby County station was opened at the Houston Rescue Services Inc. building located on Russia-Houston Road, in Houston. Spirit EMS has five ambulances, one utility vehicle and two wheelchair vans between its two Shelby County stations.

After taking the lead and successfully advocating for the passage of the 2.0 mil levies for both Houston and Perry Port Salem ambulance districts in 2021, Spirit EMS was able to provide and maintain on-station EMS crews around the clock. Just recently Spirit EMS inked a deal with the Houston Joint Ambulance district to serve the area through Dec. 31, 2025. The Perry Port Salem Joint Ambulance District is being served in 2023 solely by a volunteer and part-time paid employee base.

Spirit EMS looks forward to continuing its services to all of Shelby County in 2023 and maintaining the family-owned businesses motto of “Our Family Taking Care of Your Family.”