Clay County Leadership is excited to announce the award of the Dogwood Health Trust grant to expand our Community Paramedic Program. One of the main goals of the program is to deliver underutilized resources to underserved populations.
By using EMS workers to provide health services where access to care is difficult or may not exist, Clay County is again leading the region and state by initiating new and unique programs to expand rural healthcare. The grant will pay for a 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD 4WD with crew cab, a 28 foot enclosed fully finished interior trailer with dual AC, awning, and fully wired for generator power. The mobile clinic will be fully equipped with the grant funds. The equipment will allow for both preventative and urgent care delivery.
Additionally, the grant will fund a second Community Paramedic for 2 years. This allows us to expand our services to the citizens of Clay County. Our Community Paramedics ease the burden on our EMS by allowing them to preemptively visit shut ins and at risk populations. This decreases EMS calls and minimizes transports freeing up staff to meet more urgent needs.
If you recall, our Community Paramedic program spearheaded the first of its kind Monoclonal Antibody Infusion Clinic. This mobile unit will allow for similar activities in the future while freeing up our brick and mortar space. Other activities for which this could be used include: on site school sports physicals, community health events, vaccine clinics and mobile command facilities for disaster relief.
Clay County continues to set the standard in Western North Carolina. The Clay County Board of Commissioners is thankful for the grant opportunity and all those who worked on this project. We remain steadfast in our commitment to success through a forward thinking vision and strategy to delivery state of the art facilities and service.