Welcome to HickoryRecord.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

HickoryRecord.com - Hickory Daily Record

HomeNewsEntertainmentSportsLifestylesOpinionCommunityWeather Online Tools Jobs | Real Estate | Shopping | Classified

New deal would help county's littlest patients

Commissioners back purchase of new neonatal ambulance

By Dee Henry | Hickory Daily Record

Published: September 16, 2008

NEWTON - More room for important equipment and to allow mothers and children to travel together to the hospital are two benefits in the purchase of a new ambulance to be used by Catawba County Emergency Medical Services in transporting ill babies to Catawba Valley Medical Center.

"This agreement provides a service not only to the citizens of Catawba County, but also those in the outlying counties as well," said the county's Emergency Services Director David Weldon.

In order to purchase the new vehicle, county EMS entered a joint purchase agreement with the county.

The board of commissioners agreed to take the total purchase cost — $242,174 — out of its general fund to back the purchase. In return, CVMC will reimburse the county for the cost in monthly payments over an eight-year period.

"The downside to our current arrangement," Weldon said, "is our equipment is too large, specific and heavy for the ambulance."

Currently, EMS uses a spare ambulance, outfitted to accommodate neonatal patients and their needs.

The equipment offered is used to provide nitric oxide therapy and high frequency jet ventilation. The current ambulance does not have enough space to allow mothers to travel to the hospital with their babies.

If the hospital should back out of the contract, it would have to pay the county the remainder owed and the ambulance would transfer ownership to the county.

The board also presented former Rep. Cass Ballenger with the Catawba County Spirit Award.

The award is given to a person who shows "goodness, valor, creativity, benevolence, compassion, patriotism and a high order of service to Catawba County ... and/or the nation," according to the wording on the plaque.

Ballenger was recognized for his commitment to the No Child Left Behind initiative, his work as chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee and the Ballenger Foundation. He is the fifth recipient of the award since the commissioners began giving it 10 years ago.