Emergency Medical Services

Labette Health Emergency Medical Services (Labette Health EMS) is a county-wide Advanced Life Support (ALS) transport EMS system that serves all of Labette County and a portion of Neosho and Cherokee Counties in Kansas and Craig County, Oklahoma. Labette Health EMS responds to approximately 3,500 requests for service annually with calls ranging from medical emergencies and trauma calls to significant rescue situations and disasters. Labette Health has operated the county-wide service for over ten years and is the exclusive EMS provider for Labette County.

The service operates out of two stations; station one in Parsons that covers the Northern and Western parts of the jurisdiction and station two that covers the southern and eastern portion of the Labette Health EMS jurisdiction. Station one is staffed with two on-duty crews and two reserve ambulances. The On-Duty Captain's Vehicle, Major Incident Response Unit and Administrative Offices are all also located in Parsons. Station two houses one on-duty crew, one reserve ambulance and will soon house a "Gator" response vehicle used for special events and rescue situations.

Each Crew is configured with at least one paramedic and an Emergency Medical Technichian ensuring a consistency in patient care. The medical crews enjoy all standing order protocols and are very involved in the development of new protocols and procedures. Some of the newer more advanced procedures in use at Labette Health EMS are Rapid Sequence Induction, Adult Intraosseous Infusion, and Surgical Cricothyrotomy. The medical staff all work 24 hour shifts and are led by a Captain and Lieutenant on each shift. Both the Captain and Lieutenant are both Paramedics.

Labette Health EMS, like other EMS agencies has gone through a significant change since 9/11. Not only is regular medical and trauma patient training required but Weapons of Mass Destruction, Mass Casualty Incident, Hazardous Materials and Incident Command training have become regular topics not only in the EMS Department but with first responder agencies through out Labette County. Labette Health EMS and The Parsons Fire Department have both been equipped and cross trained with Hazardous Materials and Mass Casualty units that can be deployed regionally. Labette Health EMS' Mass Causality Incident unit is equipped to treat 50 patients on scene and prepare them for transport. It also boasts a mobile command/communications center and is equipped with a full cache of incident/medical command paraphernalia.

In addition to the medical response Labette Health EMS provides they also respond on all fire, Hazardous Material and special rescue incidents in their jurisdiction. Nine Fire Department/First Responder Agencies provide additional EMS response in Labette County. All nine departments follow the same protocols and have identical EMS equipment; this aids in training and mutual aid responses that do occur frequently. Training for the EMS Department and for other departments is provided through our two certified EMS Instructor/Coordinators and our eight certified EMS Training Officers.

St. John's MedFlight II is located on our campus which not only gives our patients an opportunity for rapid transport to a specialty center if needed but gives our staff the unique opportunity to train with their highly trained and skilled medical staff.

Labette Health EMS is a very proud organization providing outstanding patient care and a level of service rarely found in most public safety agencies.

Director of EMS: Christopher E. Way, MICT, BA
Medical Director: Sonya Culver, DO
Full Time Staff: 1 Director/Paramedic
3 Captain/Paramedics
3 Lieutenant/Paramedics
6 Paramedics
9 Emergency Medical Technicians
1 Administrative Assistant
Part Time Staff: 2 Paramedics
5 Emergency Medical Technicians