Oldham County sets record for EMS calls in 2020

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Paramedics and EMTs were busy in Oldham County in 2020 with the most runs its ever seen in the midst of a pandemic.

Oldham County EMS, which is operated by Baptist Health, said 2020 started off as a normal year for call volume before it took a nose dive in the first months of the pandemic.

"It was probably late April, early May that those numbers started to turn around and our more frequent calls that we would typically see began to rise again," EMS Director Keith Smith said. "And then by June, our normal call volume got back to where it was normally at."

From that point forward, Smith said EMS runs in the county grew exponentially. That timeline coincides with when long-term facilities began seeing an uptick in COVID-19 patients.

"Many of their rules changed having to do with dialysis," Smith said. "It really became restrictive over where we could these patients for care."

Made up of both full-time and part-time workers, the EMS system also faced challenges with staffing as crew members would contract COVID-19. All told, more than 6000 runs were made in the county in 2020.

Leaders estimate that around half of those involved "COVID suspected" patients.

"My heart goes out to every EMS worker in the nation and the world, quite honestly, that has dealt with COVID because the amount of strain both physically and emotionally that they have gone through has simply been tremendous," Smith said.