Sheriff's Department Asks Ambulance Service to Cover Cost of a Dispatcher

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ The Perry County Sheriff's Department has written a letter to the Pinckneyville Volunteer Ambulance Service, asking it to accept more than a two-fold increase in what the department charges the ambulance service to handle its '911', patient transfer and shuttle van calls.

Perry County Sheriff Keith Kellerman said he has not yet had a response from the Pinckneyville Ambulance Service board of directors.

The letter advises the ambulance service that it is increasing what it charges to traffic calls from between $8,000 and $10,000 a year to $25,000 a year. Kellerman said that would better cover the costs of one of the department's dispatchers.

Kellerman said there is value in the service his telecommunicators provide. He said not only does the department take the ambulance service's calls, but tracks the call and response from beginning to end, something most telecommunications. He said it is true of not only an accident or an emergency medical event, but even patient transfers.

By his calculations, about half of the telecommunications traffic in his department is for the ambulance service, which handles upwards of 300 calls per month.

For years, the ambulance service was self-sustaining, but won voter approval to receive funds from a tax levy that would help the service buy equipment and better meet a growing payroll.

Last year, the Pinckneyville Ambulance Service received $210,042 from its tax levy. Ninety-seven percent of the money stays in Perry County. About seven percent goes to assist the Coulterville Ambulance Service which responds to calls in northern Perry County.

The sheriff's department hopes to invoke the increase before the end of the current year.