Jennings named EMS director
Brian Jennings has now officially been approved as Warren County?s new EMS director.
After serving as interim director since September, Jennings was approved by unanimous vote at the Warren County Commission meeting Monday to take on the job left open by the retirement of former director Leonard Madewell in January.
Jennings said he is looking forward to accepting the new challenges the job presents, and appreciates the commission?s vote of confidence.
?I think it?s an exciting opportunity,? Jennings said. ?That?s the way I look at it. I think we have a great bunch of people out here. There?s so much to be done, but we?re going to take it one step at a time and make improvements as we can. There?s always room for improvements.?
Jennings is a 14-year veteran with Warren County EMS. He began in 1993 as a dispatcher. At that time he was an EMT, but eventually took further training and became a paramedic.
Shortly after he took the job as dispatcher he began working on ambulances, eventually being promoted to supervisor of C shift in 2001, where he remained until being appointed interim director.
Jennings says one of the things he wants to accomplish is to increase public awareness of the department and its employees.
?I guess in a way we?re ambassadors in every aspect to the health care community,? Jennings said. ?Especially in our home town.?
Jennings says the service has been working with River Park Hospital on several programs, like its accreditation with St. Thomas as a chest pain center. Jennings says he believes EMS can, and should, play a big role in the community.
?We recently became a CPR training site through the American Heart Association,? Jennings said. ?I consider that a service to the community, which is why I pursued that. We are starting an Explorer site, which is an affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America, Middle Tennessee Council.?
Jennings says other public services, such as police departments and fire departments here and elsewhere in the area, have done this and he feels it is a good way for the public, particularly young people, to become more knowledgeable about these public service professions by seeing what goes on first hand.
Since it is the Internet age, Jennings also feels it?s important to have a presence on the Web.
?We?ve launched a Web site,? he said. ?It?s www.warrencountyems.net. It?s currently under construction, and I?d say it?s about 60 percent complete.?
Once complete, Jennings says the site will feature a wealth of information about the local EMS service.
?It will give you a tour of our facilities, their locations and an idea of the equipment that we have. There will be a list of our employees, along with their pictures, and you can e-mail those employees. We?ll have a community calendar on there that will spell out what our plans are as far as the CPR classes for the public, and hopefully in the future, some basic first aid information that we can supply to the public.?
Jennings says he is very pleased with where EMS is now, but he does have some goals for the future.
?We have a good service,? Jennings said. ?We handle around 365 calls a month. One of my goals as director will be to provide a little bit better training for our folks. I definitely want to improve our response times. We started in 2000 with our substation program, and I think, based on the response, I would like to continue that, which is basically getting the ambulances out closer to the people out in the public.
?Upcoming, we have an expansion project on the books, and that hopefully will be finalized by June of this year,? Jennings said, ?and that will be placing a station on Highway 8 and 127 intersection, or somewhere in that vicinity.?
Warren County EMS is an A-rated service, and currently has 27 employees, including 24 full-time employees manning ambulances, two full-time bookkeepers, and Jennings himself. Shifts are 24 hours on, and 48 hours off for ambulance personnel, and a regular 40-hour work week for the other employees. The service also keeps a roster of around 20 part-time ambulance personnel.