EMS

EMS has 9 ambulances in Pickens County – 3 in Easley (Glenwood, 2 at Pope Field), 1 in Dacusville, Pickens, Holly Springs, Liberty, Central and Six Mile (see below).

Easley by far has the highest call volume. Often times when Easley’s 3 ambulances are out on calls or stuck in Greenville waiting for a bed to open up at the hospital, the Dacusville unit has to run down to Easley as back-up. Or the Pickens ambulance has to shift over toward Easley, and in turn Holly Springs’ unit comes down down to Pickens to plug that hole.

Lo and behold there is a call on Highway 11, then the Holly Springs unit has to back track up to Highway 11 or the Vineyards or River Bluff. This shifting that often occurs to cover holes in the southern part of the county, inevitability raises response times in the northern part of the county.

Last year the county added two “power trucks” or ambulances that run (not 24 hours like the rest but) peak hours each day, usually from about 8 am to 8 pm. There is one power truck on the east side of the county and the other on the west. This has helped with the bottlenecks in Easley (and Central too), and hence the Holly Springs and Dacusville ambulances can stay put more often and better field calls in their areas when their phone rings.

The county has not built a new EMS station since 2012. EMS calls are rising every year, so the long-term solution is to build another station in Easley and then another in Norris, both with 24-hour ambulances. The county has plans on the drawing board for both, in particular, to build another station just north of Easley (Highway 135) or on the east side of the city (Highway 153 area).

The most pressing problem, though, is the Pickens EMS station behind the library on N. Catherine Street. The station is old, a steel building, that was built as a temporary home for Medic 1 about 20 years ago.

Two years ago the county was given millions in Covid money (American Rescue Plan Act). It has $7 million left. The plan is to build a new Pickens EMS station (Medic 1) behind the county administration building, a new EMS headquarters there too, as well as a centralized 911 call center. The hope is money will be left over and I think it should be invested in another EMS station in Easley, as that will help with the rising call volume in the county’s largest city and sure-up coverage in the northern part of the county as well.