LAURINBURG — Three members of the Scotland County Emergency Medical Services will be bringing their combined decades of experience to new roles within the department.
Jordan Callahan and Mike Clark were recently promoted to become Field Training officers, and Anita Baker was promoted to the position of Shift supervisor or captain by Scotland County Public Safety Director Robert Sampson.
Clark brings decades of experience to the new role. He said he hopes to be a “responsible leader” that will be tasked with accompanying newcomers on their daily activities and teaching them policy.
Previously a paramedic, Callahan has been with the department for nine months but has six years of experience in the field. She said that it “means a lot” for faith to be placed in her to make this county grow and she looks forward to assisting with the “newbies.”
Many in her position would not have been given the same opportunity, Callahan said.
Baker promised to bring “excellent leadership” to her department and “excellent care” to the patients throughout Scotland County in her new role.
“It means a lot,” Baker said about being chosen for the new role.
The New York native with about 15 years of experience told the Laurining Exchange Scotland EMS is “changing for the better.”
“We got some things going on,” Baker said.
The shake-up in the department stemmed from the recent change in working hours.
In June, Sampson proposed shifting to a 24/72 work schedule, effective July 1. Funds from previously allocated six positions will fund the building of a fourth shift. Creating the fourth shift meant that the county would need to hire an EMS supervisor and reclassify a paramedic position to an assistant supervisor position for the new shift. Sampson also proposed hiring an EMS training officer during that time.
According to data Sampson presented to the commissioners, 26 counties in the state have transitioned to this shift schedule, “and that number will continue to grow.”
Scotland County was the sole county in the region working three 24/48 shifts, meaning EMS employees work for 24 hours and then take two days off before their next shift.
“Twenty-four hours is a long time to be at work,” Baker said. “We stay busy.”
That is a schedule that was started way back in the 80s when the EMS was first established in Scotland County, Sampson said. During the 1990s, the EMS was averaging around 4,000 calls per year and that included bed-bound patients that needed rides to doctors’ appointments, dialysis transports, the vast majority of medical transports to other medical facilities and 911 calls, all with two ambulances. Since then calls have nearly doubled.
Sampson said the new hours have been “so far, so good” since implementation.