New Ambulance Director brings experience, enthusiasm to job

by Michael Smith
It’s obvious from the minute you engage in the conversation: John Fox cares about Emergency Medical Services. And he especially cares for the people who provide those services.
Fox is Wabasha’s new Ambulance Service Director and he brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to the position. He has a simple goal…and that’s to provide the residents of the area with the finest in emergency medical care that the service can provide. To that end, he already realizes the volunteer staff he oversees is just as dedicated to that mission and is as well-trained as a community such as Wabasha could hope to ask for.
“I hope Wabasha realizes just what they’ve got here,” he readily offered, referring to the EMT’s that comprise his 26-person “active” department. “What I’ve found since I arrived here is a sound, well-run service, which says a lot for the staff. They challenge me every day (to be more efficient and professional).”
Fox learned his trade early, receiving medical training while serving as an Army Airborne infantryman in the 1980’s. “I hopped around a bit, but in 1994 I started pursuing my EMT career,” said the native of Chaska.
“I’ve been doing this off-and-on for most of my adult life, though.” Most of that adult life was spent in Chanhassen, but once he started as a paramedic, his career took him to different locations around the state.
“My first EMT job was at Mystic Lake Casino,” he smiled, “on a par-time basis.”
After further training, he advanced his career.
“I worked in Chisago County’s Lakes Region EMS, which took up the bulk of paramedic career—17 years. I did everything there.
“Then I moved on to Moose Lake and was with the Ambulance Service there for awhile, as well.” He said the change in the structure of the Chisago County service due the tremendous growth it experienced being in such close proximity to the Twin Cities led him to decide to go elsewhere.
“From there it was on to Two Harbors with the Lake County Ambulance Service, which was this past summer. Then this opportunity came up.”
He chose to come to Wabasha because it brought him closer to his fiancee and because he really loves this part of the state…and because he believes in ambulance services of this size and scope.
“I like a challenge. And being outstate, away from the metro area where you’ve practically got a hospital around every corner, makes this kind of service more vital and more meaningful. We know we have to be able to deal with just about any situation and do it well because we can’t just rush someone to the hospital.
“In fact, that phrase, ‘rush someone to the hospital,’ always bothers me. We usually don’t rush someone, unless it’s absolutely necessary, because we take the time required to make sure the individual is stable and ready for transport. If not, we may need the assistance of an air ambulance…if time is of the essence.”
Speaking of air ambulances, such as Mayo One, Fox was also a flight paramedic during his EMT career—on a part-time basis—and was a firefighter in Shakopee for awhile, as well.
During these past several years, he also has been an active educator with the Hennepin and Pine County Technical Colleges, teaching classes in emergency medical care (for EMT’s and First Responders).
“The tipping point in coming here was when I discovered, basically right away, this community’s strong commitment to its ambulance service. It is phenomenal. “Look at how the city has supported capital improvement, in the form of new ambulances and this station. So, I said, ‘You bet, I’ll come down here.’”
So, yes, Fox had made a strong commitment to emergency medical services thus far. But when he’s not providing those services, or crunching budget numbers or patient statistics, which he is quite prone to do, as we discovered, he’s outdoors, enjoying a good deer hunting or fishing outing. He even enjoys ice fishing in the winter. “I love the outdoors,” he explained, “but I also love to read and I’m a real movie buff.”
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But the new Ambulance Director seemed even more at ease talking about his staff that he’s inherited and overseen now since the first of October. Former Director Sean Lathrop, as you may recall, had resigned to accept a similar position with the Detroit Lakes Ambulance Service.
As we noted, the Wabasha Ambulance Service has 26 “active” members, as well as a few who are out for a variety of reasons. “And of those 26, at least half of them are extremely active. “We have primary crews assigned all of the time…and at least one person on call.” That’s a staffing level that not all small-town ambulance services can provide.
“It’s basic life support services, but it’s pretty complicated stuff, just the same,” Fox explained. “We may have to deal with everything from a heart attack to child birth on the way to the hospital.”
Something new that the service is obtaining is an advanced heart monitoring device, a piece of equipment that allows the EMT’s to take 12 different pictures of someone’s heart…which, in turn, allows them to diagnose a potential or ongoing heart attack with much greater accuracy.
“This is a procedure that would normally only be done in the hospital once the patient arrives there,” he noted. “It’s the kind of stuff that takes time to train for. We spend a lot of time training.
While the Wabasha Ambulance Service averages about 500 runs a year—about 1-1/3 calls per day, taking up anywhere from an hour to three hours of their time on each call—they put that much time and often more, in training. Fox explained that emergency patient care or transport runs account for only a small percentage of their time spent with the service.
“This is not their primary job, we all know. Yet, they are willing to give a level of commitment to this service that goes above the on-call time, above and beyond what may be expected of them.”
“We’re also always looking for new things, new tools or methods, industry-wide, that can make us a mobile-integrated health care provider,” and by that he means dong more in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, rather than the patient having to wait, possibly at some expense, to get that treatment at the hospital.
Of the 500 or so calls the service provided last year, about 300 were “9-1-1’s”—emergencies. The rest were transfers or assist other departments, and so forth.
Their busiest time of day? Oddly, perhaps, 3 to 6 p.m.
“While most of our calls are during the day, many are at night. Our people have to and are willing to, give up meal time, family time, recreational time, whatever, to respond to a call. They may have just sat down to a meal when they get paged out. We often miss meals entirely. But these people readily do so”
“Dr. (Trent) Anderson is our Medical Director and he has been of tremendous assistance to us. We have a great relationship with St. Elizabeth’s overall.”
He said this is what he tells people who may ask about the ambulance service and wonder what it provides: “I tell them ‘We’re not just a social club that gets together and wears cool jackets.’ I’ll say, ‘We’re here for you (the area’s residents).’
“This service doesn’t make money. We take in only what we need to operate and provide the best service we can.
“With that in mind, our focus will always be on providing ‘outstanding’ care.”
Wabasha is fortunate to have such an outstanding ambulance service. And while none of us actually want to have to use it, we all know we may need to some day. THAT is when we appreciate the level of service they are providing.
John Fox vows to continue that level of service. But he is a team player, that is obvious, and he spent a large portion of our conversation citing the merits of the rest of his 26-member team.
About the time he was heaping that praise, longtime EMT and Ambulance Service member Linda Wallerich sauntered through the Ambulance Garage. “There’s the person who runs this operation!” he stated, smiling broadly, yet quite serious. “I’m leaning on her every day to learn more about things here and to straighten me out.”
Wallerich, in turn, shrugged with a typical modest denial; but with her years of experience, coupled with the skills of at least the past two directors, Lathrop and Darren Sheeley, and over two dozen other dedicated individuals, Wabasha’s citizens, can rest comfortably knowing that, if that time comes when they need fast, dependable medical help, they’re getting the best available.
That’s all anyone can ask.
And all that John Fox expects.