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Director's CornerNew EMS Station 2Durham County EMS became a reality in April of 1975 when J.M. "Mickey" Tezai was hired as the Director of Durham County Hospital Corporation Ambulance Division. Durham County Hospital Corporation had been created with the joining of Watts Hospital and Lincoln Hospitals together with services being offered at Watts Hospital. In May 1974, Dunlap and Associates, Inc. of Darien, Connecticut were hired by the County Commissioners to perform a study and make recommendations to the County how to proceed with providing a quality ambulance service to the citizens of Durham County. The Dunlap Study came back with four possible options for Durham County to provide Emergency Medical Services. The recommendation was made that the Durham County Hospital Corporation should assume overall responsibility for the management and operation of both emergency and transfer ambulance services in Durham County. An experienced ambulance service manager should be hired and given the responsibility of operating the ambulance service on a day-to-day basis in accordance with established polices, standards and procedures. Mickey Tezai was hired as the manager in April of 1975.Mickey was working as a Fire/Rescue Technician with the Durham Fire Department.. The recommendation was also made that a minimum of 24 qualified EMTs or acceptable applicants for EMT Training should be hired by the Hospital Corporation. They should complete the 81 –hour EMT course and clinical training at the earliest possible opportunity and receive the same pay and benefits as Fire/Rescue Specialist. This, what almost seemed an impossible task at the time was accomplished. Twenty-four (24) EMTs were hired and reported to work on May 26, 1975. EMS was working a 10-14 hour schedule, which consisted of 4-10 hour days, 4-14 hour nights and then 4 days off. It was a 56 hour workweek schedule. The Durham County Hospital Corporation purchased six (6) ambulances. Four were 1975 Superior Dodges and two were short wheel based Chevrolets obtained through a Governor's Highway Safety Grant. These ambulances were all stocked during the week of EMS Orientation and readied for service. Initially the old Private Durham Ambulance Service had given notice to the County they were no longer going to provide service to Durham County effective the end of June 1974. Therefore, the County contracted with Beacon Ambulance Service to provide coverage after Old Durham Ambulance had terminated its service to the community until the new ambulance service structure could be completed. Beacon was to continue their service until July 1 of 1975, but chose to leave Durham by June 1, 1975. On May 31, 1975, Durham County Hospital Corporation EMS ran its maiden call, thus beginning what is currently 32 years of quality emergency medical care to the Durham Community. The Dunlap Study had recommended, based on the data they had collected, that Durham have at least five emergency vehicles responding to calls. We started with four and made it work. Our first base was located in the Old Administrators house located behind Lincoln Hospital at Linwood and Spaulding Streets. The county was divided into close halves for response districts. Shift change would take place at 7AM and 5PM. Two ambulances remained at Lincoln and two went North to Watts Hospital, where the crews ran calls out of the Watts Hospital Emergency Department and when not on call actually assisted in registering patients and assisting in the care of the sick and injured, and any other duties as assigned. Durham County EMS continued to run out of these facilities, responding to about 700 calls per month, until plans to tear down the old Lincoln Hospital facility and build the new Lincoln Community Health Center were initiated. Old Lincoln Hospital was vacated in September of 1976 and patients were moved to Watts. Lincoln Community Health Center then occupied the Old hospital. In October of 1976, Durham Regional Hospital was opened and patients were transferred from Watts to the new facility. This move actually went very smooth. In the spring of 1976, Durham County EMS began the first advanced EMT-Intermediate training class with Kathy Finch, a nurse at Duke Hospital Emergency Department as the Coordinator for the class. All 24 employees were trained to the EMT-I level and certified through the State Office of EMS to perform advanced skills. In 1978, ten (10) dedicated EMT-Intermediates were selected to begin the first Mobile Intensive Care Training in Durham County. Approximately 1200 hours and almost two years later, after an intensive exam and oral interviews with physicians and nurses, these 10 were certified by the State of North Carolina as Durham’s first Mobile Intensive Care Technicians. In August of 1980 Medic 7, the first Paramedic ALS truck began service to the Durham Community. Approximately 3 years later a second truck was added and then EMS trained enough people to run all 4 EMS vehicles as Advanced Life Support units. On March 1, 1980, Durham County EMS moved from its home in the basement of the Old Watts Hospital, to its first new facility on the Durham Regional Hospital Campus. This facility continues to function today as the main operations base for Durham County EMS. In December of 1982, the new Lincoln Community Health Center opened for business. Durham County EMS moved the two units assigned into the new quarters in the basement area on the Northeast side of the building. It was very small, but much better than any of the quarters we had been accustomed to. Call volume continued to grow, so in 1983, a 5th truck was added as a peak time ambulance. This unit ran from 10AM – 10PM to address the increase in day time calls. This continued on for approximately 3 years and then became a 24-hour service ambulance. In 1983 Durham County EMS moved to a 12-hour schedule from the old 10/14 schedule. Due to the call volume, this has proven beneficial for the system. Durham continued to grow and EMS was looking for ways to expand the service and decrease response times. In 1988-89, the County Fire Departments and Durham County EMS became partners in something that had never been done before anywhere in North Carolina. County Commissioners supported Parkwood Fire/Rescue and Lebanon Fire/Rescue in placing a Durham County EMS Paramedic in their County Fire Station to ride with a volunteer from the fire dept. to respond to EMS calls. This provided two more ambulances to address the growth. As growth continued, Medics were placed in Bethesda, Redwood and Bahama in subsequent years until all the county response areas were covered with Advanced Life Support. This assisted in decreased response times to these areas in the County. This partnership has worked very well and continues to be a very important component of the Durham County EMS System. In the mid 1990’s EMS and Duke University Medical Center joined as partners to provide a small facility in Parking Garage III on Pratt Street to provide coverage in the area around campus, the medical center and a large majority of the nursing homes. As a result of this partnership, response times were significantly reduced in this area. In 1997, Durham County EMS leased the old Number 8 Fire Station at 2725 Holloway Street and began service from that location. In July of 1998, Durham County EMS became part of Durham County Government and was no longer with the Durham County Hospital Corporation. The transition was smooth as could be expected. In November of 2001, a new proposed EMS facility to replace the Lincoln Community Health Center base was approved by the citizens of Durham in a bond referendum. In May of 2006, construction began on the new EMS Station 2 facility located at 615 Old Fayetteville Street. This facility is located on the site of the first Mechanics and Farmers Drive-Through bank in Durham. As a commemorative to this bank, some of the sandstones from the facade of the bank building have been incorporated into one of the outside walls of the new EMS facility. This facility is a 6,016 square foot building housing three (3) ambulance bays, living quarters, work space for the EMS crews, living space and kitchen facilities and five (5) bedrooms. This facility is located only 3 blocks from the Lincoln Community Health Center and will not affect response times in that area. In calendar year 2006, Medic 7 and Medic 8 responded to 30% of the total EMS responses. This does not account for those calls where units from other districts responded to cover while they were committed to another call. As we continue to address growth within Durham County, we will look at creative ways to address this growth that will be efficient and effective and continue to provide the citizens of this community with a quality Emergency Medical Services System we can all be proud of. by Mike Smith, EMS Director |