By Stan Welch
The process to address the problems facing the county’s various EMS and Rescue Squad organizations is continuing. The Pelzer Rescue Squad has been asked to send one representative later this month to meet with the consultants hired by Anderson County to determine the best means to provide emergency health services to the county.
The process began last year, when the Williamston Squad was overwhelmed by poor management practices, and was struggling to meet its routine operating obligations. Following meetings with the board of directors of the squad, the County council moved in and made an arrangement with private medical provider Medshore to assume operation on a one year contract.
The County Council subsequently reviewed the condition of all the county’s squads and found that all were in varying degrees of financial distress. Following a search for consultants, Fitch & Associates, a firm out of North Platte Nebraska, was awarded the contract.
County Administrator Rusty Burns told The Journal that the document and records search which Fitch & Associates has been conducting is near completion and that interviews with squad representatives will begin later this month.
“The next phase of the study should take approximately three months, but we are in no hurry to meet some self imposed deadline,” Burns said. “This is a serious issue facing the squads and the county in general, and our focus is to come up with the best options we can, not to hurry to get this done.”
