Area ambulances will have more tools to help save lives, thanks to $9.9 million in federal funding awarded this month to Southwest Minnesota EMS. The money will provide a total of 109 ambulances across 18 counties with telemedicine services.

“Funding for this program will significantly enhance our ability to provide life-saving trauma care and help reduce traffic fatalities in rural communities,” said Ann Jenson, executive director of Southwest Minnesota EMS.

The funding, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All program, will allow EMS agencies in the region to use Avel eCare services in their ambulances. Avel eCare allows medical responders to make video calls with emergency physicians, paramedics and nurses.

“By partnering with experts from Avel eCare, we can ensure that our EMS teams, no matter how rural, can connect immediately with experienced providers to receive guidance en route to one of our 27 area hospitals – none of which are Level I or II trauma centers,” Jenson said.

Last year, Murray County Ambulance became the first Minnesota ambulance service to use Avel eCare, as part of a three-year pilot program. Avel eCare already supports EMS agencies across South Dakota and Nebraska.

“It has been going really well for us,” said Jennifer Kirchner, EMS director at Murray County Ambulance. Being able to have additional guidance from doctors made a difference for patients who needed acute care, or needed to be transferred to a hospital, she said.

“A lot of it is taking some of the pressure off our EMTs,” Jenson said. She said that’s an important task for rural ambulance services, where there are a shortage of volunteers.

Kirchner estimated that Murray County Ambulance crews used the Avel eCare service an average of four to six times a month. “It’s an amazing resource for us to utilize,” she said.

After Murray County Ambulance began its pilot program, another pilot started for the Wabasso ambulance service.

“It was at that point that we knew it was working well,” Jenson said.

Southwest Minnesota EMS worked together with the University of Minnesota and Toward Zero Deaths to apply for funding from the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, Jenson said. While at first glance EMS improvements might not seem connected to traffic safety, improving emergency medical care in rural areas was one way to help prevent crash fatalities.

On average, 35 people a year die in motor vehicle crashes in the Southwest EMS region, and 124 people a year are seriously injured, Southwest EMS said in a news release. The number of deaths increased to 48 in 2022. In rural areas, injured people also have to travel longer distances to get medical care.

“Treatment doesn’t start when patients arrive at the hospital, but at the first contact with emergency services. In a region where it can take up to 25 minutes for an ambulance to arrive on the scene and another 60 minutes to drive to the nearest hospital, telemedicine can speed access to post-crash care during the critical Golden Hour in medicine, when the patient’s chances of survival are greatest,” said Rebecca Vande Kieft, VP and general manager of emergency services at Avel eCare.

As part of a collaboration with ambulance services and hospitals, the Minnesota Department of Health and Avel eCare will partner with the University of Minnesota Translational Center for Resuscitative Trauma Care, to study the impact of the telemedicine program.

Kirchner said it was exciting to learn that ambulances across southwest Minnesota would now have access to the same telemedicine tools as Murray County Ambulance.

“It’s what we were hoping to accomplish, just to get this resource out there,” she said.