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On the last day of April, the main office for the City of Winchester at 32 Wall Street was full with members of city and local government plus others. 

While there was no meeting of the City Commission, a separate matter of importance regarding local operations took place. 

A Joint EMS Committee took place at 5:00 p.m., with EMS standing for emergency medical services. 

As mentioned, the Committee meeting featured a “who’s who” of Winchester personalities, including Mayor JoEllen Reed, City Commissioners Hannah Toole and Kitty Strode, Clark County Judge Executive Les Yates, and Magistrates Chris Davis and Steve Craycraft. 

Winchester Fire Department Chief Chris Whiteley spoke before the Committee. 

A major portion of his presentation featured a review of the department’s five-year strategic plan, which began in 2022. 

Initiatives included separating the Winchester FD into separate divisions of Fire and EMS, increasing total staffing to 80 budgeted personnel, creating new positions of EMS shift supervisors and EMS field training officers for each shift, implementing a 10-year apparatus replacement plan in each division, and sourcing land to begin construction of a new fire station. 

“We had a lack of [Advanced Life Support] providers. We had a retention issue and we had a quality of care issue,” Whiteley said. “We were making an enormous amount of runs with limited personnel that [were] required to do the larger scope of what we were doing with EMS.” 

While three platoons still exist, Whiteley noted that organizational structure has changed for the better, with a key factor being the implementation of a vertical career path. 

“We wanted to capture those folks that were truly passionate about emergency medical services, but they weren’t really excited about running into burning buildings,” he said. “We created an opportunity to capture single role EMS providers that don’t have to fear going to the fire academy [and] that don’t have to become a fireman to have any kind of career growth.” 

Such action has helped address staffing concerns in a positive manner. 

Also present at the meeting was Jacob Robinson, Assistant Chief of EMS with the Winchester Fire Department. 

“Medical equipment is different from most tools that we use in our daily lives. The majority of durable medical equipment has an industry standard service life,” Robinson said, noting that such items include cardiac monitors, CPR devices, stairs chairs, and ventilators. “When a piece of equipment reaches a service life, most vendors stop supporting the equipment.” 

Fortunately, Robinson explained that Winchester Fire Department had taken measures to curtail issues and concerns while also increasing quality regarding numerous pieces of equipment, including automated external defibrillators (AED), ambulance stretchers, and more. 

“The new Stryker stretcher comes with a seven-year warranty, and that includes free service that is done at our location,” he said. “As you can see the upgrades to the equipment [are] simply replacing items that have surpassed their service lives…now that we have replaced this equipment, we can implement a replacement plan for the future.” 

Other points were also mentioned, including the fact that the department began working with MCA Billing in November of 2024 with perks including a faster turn around time, and also signed a contract in November 2023 to work alongside Medical Transport Systems Consulting – owned and operated by former Montgomery County Fire/EMS Battalion Chief Robin Barber. 

“We had a lot of improvement we could do, because a lot of ambulance services are more passive than their ambulance billing,” Barber said. “The goal is to maximize reimbursement.” 

As might be expected, there’s always room for improvement. 

One area where Whiteley hopes to see this is with regard to the apparatus replacement program. 

“I think there is a pathway to get us back up to where we need to be,” he said. 

Whiteley expressed satisfaction with several of the developments from the five-year strategic plan and more while looking ahead. 

“We’re doing it…as a committee, as a group, [and] as a department,” he said. “[I’m] very, very proud.”