The new Head of Anderson County’s Emergency Medical Services Department is an Iowa native, whose experience runs from Midwest farm country to the sparsely populated high desert frontier area of Southern Oregon. Troy Armstrong says the differences between Anderson County and his most recent post, is the expanse of the service area. The service area in Anderson County is about 584 square miles; in Oregon, it was 5,800 square miles and the population density was much lower. Armstrong says there was less than one person per square mile. Armstrong says Anderson County has the advantage of having a system built from the emergency dispatchers on up, trained to determine types of emergencies and relay to a network of volunteer first responders established in Anderson County’s rural communities, to render more immediate aid until an ambulance crew can arrive at a scene.
He says his first priority is to fill a couple vacant positions: an additional full time paramedic and a part time paramedic, then settle into relationships with the community of emergency personnel he’ll be working with.
