If you need an ambulance and care in some parts of rural Iowa, you may not get an ambulance from your own area, due to the other calls that are being handled. The care…and timing of that care…may delayed. That can be a critical problem.

The Nevada volunteer fire department has looked at that problem and as of today, may be the first in the central part of the state to offer ALS…or Advanced Life Support. What that means is that the departments five paramedics can do whatever an ambulance crew can do, except transport a patient. Nevada Fire Chief Ray Reynolds notes pre-hospital care in areas like Story County are at a critical stage.

Reynolds says they are not a replacement for an ambulance crew, but partnering with folks from Story Medical and NuCara Pharmacy, the ALS Care will be able to fill in that gap and hopefully save lives by providing ambulance-level care.