Cumberland County EMS Director Chris Miller said he opposes Crossville’s decision to establish an ambulance service.
Miller said about 40-50 percent of the county’s ambulance service work originates in Crossville. Miller said losing that call volume would drastically reduce the county’s ambulance revenue. Miller said Crossville’s ambulance service would have a major impact on the county.
“So either your county taxes are gonna go up, to you know, you know, to get that revenue, that lost revenue back, well, it’s either gonna be passed on to the county taxpayers or those resources are just gonna go away and the jobs are gonna be lost,” Miller said.
Many Crossville citizens advocated for the city to establish an ambulance service, as they believe the county’s ambulance service does not respond fast enough. Miller said he is confused by those statements, as his department has been highly honored for how well it performs.
“The national target response time nationwide is eight minutes,” Miller said. “That is your target time. Our average response time in the city of Crossville is just over seven minutes, I think it’s seven minutes and 14 seconds is our average response time inside the city of Crossville. And county-wide is just over 10 minutes, and with a county the size of Cumberland County, that is very good.”
Miller said it was disappointing to hear the negative comments that people made about the county’s ambulance service.
“Our service did almost 300 extra training hours last year, and half of the last several years,” Miller said. “That’s just the level of commitment that we as an organization and my employees have got to. We want to be the best that we can possibly be, and for someone to imply that we are not well-trained or not motivated, it is disappointing.”
Miller said the county’s ambulance service provides out-of-county transports. Miller said to his understanding, Crossville’s ambulance service will only respond to 911 calls and not perform out-of-county transports. Miller said if his department loses resources, it will make it harder to provide out-of-county transports.
Miller said both ambulance services would have to work together, which is something that has been an issue in the past.
“Our medical director has made multiple attempts to try to speak with you know, the staff over there and get them on board and to come and do training with us,” Miller said. “And I’ve made the statement several times, you get the right people in one room, a lot of this stuff could be taken care of, but so far we have been unsuccessful in getting that to happen.”
