Viability of rural ambulance services in South Dakota at risk due to staffing and funding shortages
About a third of rural ambulance directors in South Dakota said they couldn’t respond to a call because of staffing shortages, according to a 2016 survey. Roughly a third more said response times were delayed due to lack of staffing.
Written By:
Danielle Ferguson / South Dakota News Watch | 12:49 pm, May 4, 2021 ×
Nicole Neugebauer, a former South Dakota EMT of the Year, is pictured with a Douglas County Ambulance in Armour. Neugebauer is the Armour ambulance director. (Caitlynn Peetz/Republic)
Rural ambulance services in South Dakota are having an increasingly hard time recruiting volunteers and generating revenues, putting the stability of the services at risk and making it more likely that rural residents will endure longer response times in emergencies or possibly lose ambulance service altogether.
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