HAYS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — As more people move to the Hill Country, they are making emergency calls — which means more work for emergency crews.
“We need medics out here,” said Ken Strange, EMS Director for Wimberley Emergency Medical Services. “We have about 142 square miles of Hays County that we take care of.”
Strange said his crews are seeing more calls for service and that’s one reason why they just added a new ambulance to their fleet going from two to three.
Strange said he is also looking to hire at least nine paramedics.
“When I first started working here we averaged over 1,900 calls a year,” said George Poulos. “And now we are probably running about 2,300 calls a year.”
Poulos has worked for Wimberley EMS for four years. He said another ambulance will be good for his team.
“It would further spread out the calls to a total of six paramedics instead of four,” Poulos said.
A new ambulance would mean faster response times, Strange said, but before that can happen they will have to find a place to keep the ambulance and its crews.
“We work 48-hour shifts here so I need a place for two people to be able to sleep and park an ambulance and keep it plugged in at night and during the day,” Strange said.
Strange said he is actively looking for paramedics, as well as a place to house them.
If you are interested in applying or reaching out you can find that information here.
Wimberley EMS is a nonprofit and told KXAN it has a contract with Hays County.