KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Two issues on the Knox County Commission's agenda attracted public interest — emergency medical response and animal control in Knox County.
According to a Fitch and Associates report, there are problems with Knox County's overall emergency response system. Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs said it's been a challenge, not only locally but nationally.
"With the wait times as they currently are at hospitals, these are offload times, what is called 'Wall Time.' It would be difficult, if not impossible for any provider to be successful under our current contract," Jacobs said. "This is not something that's necessarily the fault of the hospitals. This is just a systemic issue that again, we see around the country."
The new proposed contract brings several changes. One of those changes moving ambulance dispatch to Knox County's E-911.
"Knox County will employ the medical director. They're the ones that will make the protocols and develop the protocols, as well as just better reporting so we'll be able to better gather data," Jacobs said. "And that will move from the provider to E-911, will be centralized along with dispatch for pretty much every other emergency service in Knox County."
For the first time, Knox County considered subsidizing its ambulance service to address issues and help retain workers.
"They have more money to pass on to their employees," Jacobs said. "But since we've made the announcement of our recommendation, they have been able to hire a lot more folks, and we're very happy that they've been able to put a lot more ambulances on the road because of that. So, even just having more certainty in the system and saying this is going to be the award winner has really helped out the overall performance."
The commission voted to pass the new contract 7-4 on Monday. The new contract is expected to go into effect in February.
As for the animal control service, this proposal would allow the Young Williams Center to hire about 15 officers who would respond to calls about animals. These officers would have to call the police if they witnessed any criminal activity, Jacobs said, as they would not be able to arrest anyone.
The mayor said this move would free police resources.
"This is something that actually the sheriff and KPD talked to us about. And they are very much in favor of moving animal control to Young-Williams," Jacobs said. "It's also, frankly, better for the animals because now, instead of going from agency to agency, they have one agency that they're dealing with."
The proposal to give Young-Williams Animal Center the power to respond to animal control calls passed the Knox County Commission Monday night too.