City of Minonk Ambulance goes from Intermediate Life Support (ILS) to Advanced Life Support (ALS) or Paramedic Service

Minonk EMS has begun the process to advance to ALS, (Paramedic) service. This will take approximately two to three years to get one of our ambulances to the Paramedic Level.  We have known for some time this is the direction that we wanted to go, however it takes a lot of time, commitment, dedication and funds.
The time, commitment and dedication have a lot to do with the EMT’s. They have to first want to advance to that next level. The EMT- Basic class takes about four months to complete, 120 class room hours alone. This doesn’t include their 90 hours of clinical time they have to complete prior to taking their state exam. If they choose to move on to the Intermediate level they have to commit to approximately 250 class room hours (about a six month course) and 175 clinical hours before they can take their state exam.  In order for the EMT – Intermediate to progress to the Paramedic level they must commit to a year long class or approximately 1200 hours which includes class room hours and clinical hours. We currently have three individuals going to Paramedic class. They are doing their ride time on El Paso’s ALS unit. They work and train right alongside a Paramedic. 

This is a commitment and dedication! They do all this and still have families, school events (that they may miss), not to mention cover the two ambulances here in Minonk.

The final cost for the ambulances to upgrade to the Paramedic Level is about $3000.00 per unit. This includes medication upgrades, and equipment upgrades. The costs for the EMT classes are Basic $500.00, Intermediate $895 and Paramedic class alone is $2600.00.  In order to get one unit ALS 24 hours a day 7 days a week, we need to have a minimum of 1 Paramedics and 1 Basic in order to staff a unit. This means that we need to have a minimum of 4-5 Paramedics licensed before we can have one become an ALS unit.

The EMT’s will be trying to raise funds to help get us through this period. We will be having several fund raising events throughout the up and coming months and even couple years. We feel very fortunate to have a community and council that are so supportive of their ambulance service.  We wanted to try and help raise funds to cushion the cost of the city.

If you would like to donate you may send a check or money order to Minonk EMS c/o Deb Stewart, 670 Chestnut St., Minonk IL. 61760.

Minonk EMS is in the process of obtaining their 501(C )3 Status. This means that any donations that we receive can actually beused as a tax right off for the contributor. It also will be a very valuable tool for the service to apply for and receive grants.