Ambulance service, then and now
October 7, 2020
Sheila Harris
Although the transition in dispatching locations for the Barry-Lawrence County Ambulance District was fraught with delays, ambulance service itself has come a long way since ambulances were dispatched by a call to the sheriff’s office or to a local funeral home.
Cassville funeral director Skip White remembers when ambulances were just station wagons owned by funeral homes.
“No one who drove them had medical training, and the only equipment onboard might be a bottle of oxygen,” he said. “The ambulance driver’s main goal was to get his passenger to the hospital as quickly as possible.”
Scott Lakin, of Lakin Funeral Home in Pierce City, has his own stories to share.
“I was just a kid then,” he said, “but I remember there was always a big race between funeral homes to be the first one on the wreck scene with an ambulance. It was a pretty cut-throat business. Sometimes, the ambulance from one funeral home would block the back doors of another funeral home’s ambulance.
Although neither gentleman was willing to name names, they did admit they could tell stories of times when ambulance drivers may have caused additional harm, while trying to help victims of accidents and illnesses.
Lakin and White both said they were glad to see the formation of professional ambulance districts and ambulances with trained medical personnel and equipment on board. They began appearing in Barry County in the mid-1970s.
In addition to professional ambulance districts working with the Barry County E911 Center, Barry County residents have one of only six accredited emergency call centers in Missouri. The accreditation is earned by successfully completing an intensive 20-step process, which must be repeated every three years in order to maintain that status. The Barry County E911 Center was reaccredited in 2019, after its initial accreditation in 2016.
Although the transition in dispatching locations for the Barry-Lawrence County Ambulance District was fraught with delays, ambulance service itself has come a long way since ambulances were dispatched by a call to the sheriff’s office or to a local funeral home.
Cassville funeral director Skip White remembers when ambulances were just station wagons owned by funeral homes.
“No one who drove them had medical training, and the only equipment onboard might be a bottle of oxygen,” he said. “The ambulance driver’s main goal was to get his passenger to the hospital as quickly as possible.”
Scott Lakin, of Lakin Funeral Home in Pierce City, has his own stories to share.
“I was just a kid then,” he said, “but I remember there was always a big race between funeral homes to be the first one on the wreck scene with an ambulance. It was a pretty cut-throat business. Sometimes, the ambulance from one funeral home would block the back doors of another funeral home’s ambulance.
Although neither gentleman was willing to name names, they did admit they could tell stories of times when ambulance drivers may have caused additional harm, while trying to help victims of accidents and illnesses.
Lakin and White both said they were glad to see the formation of professional ambulance districts and ambulances with trained medical personnel and equipment on board. They began appearing in Barry County in the mid-1970s.
In addition to professional ambulance districts working with the Barry County E911 Center, Barry County residents have one of only six accredited emergency call centers in Missouri. The accreditation is earned by successfully completing an intensive 20-step process, which must be repeated every three years in order to maintain that status. The Barry County E911 Center was reaccredited in 2019, after its initial accreditation in 2016.
