Meier to retire from JC EMS

Effective Friday, Jan. 31, Shannon Meier, director of Emergency Management Services (EMS) for Jewell County, will retire from the position which he has held since January 2000.

According to Meier, unless the county commissioners find a suitable candidate before Jan. 31, or designate a new hire to assume his current duties, Amber Harding, assistant director of EMS, has the requisite skills to fulfill the requirements satisfactorily of the position Meier now fills. However, Meier expects the director of EMS will be filled with a permanent replacement by Jan. 31.

Meier said, "Harding is a paramedic, and will perform the duties of director of EMS until they get somebody hired."

Meier has worked for Jewell County EMS since 1990 and was designated as an EMT-intermediate in 1992. Meier earned his paramedic certification in 1997. In 2001, Meier earned qualifications necessary for flight paramedic certification.

Meier has responsibility to cover all 900 square miles in Jewell County for ambulance and emergency medical services.

Meier has a total of seven full-time staff, some part-time personnel, and then of course volunteers. He has four certified paramedics, and eight EMTs that can do some Advanced Life Support (ALS) care. Also he has personnel that are trained EMRs.

Meier said they have written grants over the years. Over the last two years, they have received $200,000 worth in grant money for medical equipment needs. 

Meier said, "As far as equipment goes, we are very well off. Our cots are new, our vehicles are new, our ventilators are new, and the cardiac monitors are all new. All of our equipment is relatively new, and the best and most modern, and so I am leaving the department extremely well equipped."

Meier talked about age-related conditions in the patients they care for in Jewell County, he said, "We have seen considerable increase in respiratory problems in younger people."

JC has four ambulances and the oldest is a 2012 ambulance model. All of the ambulances have Ford chassis. Two out of the four ambulances in the garage were purchased within the last two years and so they are fairly new and all ambulances are designated as type 3.

Personnel in general in the EMS profession seems to be on Meier's mind a lot. Meier said, "We need to get more volunteers because that is where it starts. We have been one of the lucky services because our turnover rate of employees has been very low, unlike other servicesthat are trying to hire people all of the time."

Meier showed some of the important medical equipment onboard one of the four ambulances in the garage. He said the cardiac monitor onboard the ambulance he demonstrated has a defibrillator with it. 

Meier said, "With the new cardiac monitors, we can monitor the patient's cardiac status, the respiratory tract and CO2 readings, carbon monoxide readings, carbon dioxide readings, blood pressure, etc., so it has a tremendous amount to it. If the patient is on a ventilator, we can monitor the patient's rate of inspiration and expiration. Basically everything in this ambulance that is here, is like everything they have in an emergency room. We can trach someone here and put chest tubes in."

When it comes to the average number of emergency ambulance calls, Meier said the average used to be basically once a day, but now the average is about 50 calls per month.

Meier is married to Joni Meier and has one daughter, Serena, who is 25 years old. She is a hygienist, living in Hays, Kansas. Meier has one grandchild, a boy, Miles, born in August.

One of Meier's favorite interests is to serve at local schools, coaching track and cross-country in his spare-time, and he is obviously proud of that part of his contribution to the community of Mankato at Rock Hills school.

Meier is continuing in his career in emergency medicine, as he has accepted a position to soon become director of emergency services at Jewell County Hospital as educational coordinator at the hospital.