Pioneering Rochester ambulance system illuminates today's rural EMS gaps

CATHY WURZER: OK. For the next few minutes, we're going to talk about, well, a little history. Taking an ambulance to a hospital looked a whole lot different 70 or 80 years ago. Its job was to get you to the hospital quickly, not as much about the medical treatment along the way. A pioneering ambulance service in southern Minnesota helped improve survival rates and professionalized the job to what it is today, a hospital on wheels.

A new exhibit at the History Center of Olmsted County puts the spotlight on Gold Cross Ambulance and its advances. And there's a panel discussion tonight that aims to find solutions for the challenges that remain in rural emergency medical services. Wayne Gannaway is the History Center's Executive Director. He's on the line right now for our Minnesota Now and Then series. Hey, Wayne, it's good to hear your voice. How are you?

WAYNE GANNAWAY: Yeah, you too, Cathy. Thanks for inviting me.

CATHY WURZER: Absolutely. So way back in the day, I understand funeral hearses were used to transport injured people to the hospital when they weren't transporting the dead, so kind of double duty here. Give us a sense of what ambulance service might have looked like in southeastern Minnesota at the time that Gold Cross was founded.

WAYNE GANNAWAY: Yeah. Even when Gold Cross was founded in 1962, I think a lot of funeral homes were still transporting people or they were, if not funeral homes, the vehicles themselves were still, like, horizontal taxis. So really all they were was transporting people from the scene to the hospital without really necessarily providing pre-hospital emergency care. And that is one big area where John Perkins, when he founded Gold Cross Ambulance, really wanted to make a difference.

CATHY WURZER: Tell me about him. Who was he?

WAYNE GANNAWAY: Well, he's a really interesting guy. He actually grew up in the Twin Cities. And he was part of a very early ambulance service called the Friendship First Aid Squad. And they were an all-voluntary group. They didn't charge patients for their service.

And John was also into music. He was on the U of M band. And he was at a Vikings game. And he realized at that game-- so this would have been really in the early days of the Vikings-- that they had no first aid coverage. And so he had this brainstorm that the Friendship First Aid Squad should be that coverage. And he pitched the idea, and they got the contract for it.

So he was really-- from what I gather, he was really good at seeing opportunities, essentially, where are the patients? That and his passion for public service, I think, coupled together really says a lot about who he was.

CATHY WURZER: Wow. So how-- because I can't imagine-- I can't, excuse me, imagine that he would start something without trying to fund it. I mean, did he make it financially sustainable? And if so, how did that happen?

WAYNE GANNAWAY: Well, it's interesting. Going back to the Vikings again, he actually-- when he was working the Vikings games with the Friendship ambulance service, he actually met a daughter of some fairly wealthy business guy and got to know her. And apparently, they were willing to give him his initial funding, if you will, without really knowing a lot of the details about what his business proposal would be.

But from there, he really was very innovative in, again, finding where the patients were. And I think so it goes back to the economies of scale. So one thing that he was able to do was do patient transport. So he was able to get enough traffic through that patient transport to help pay the bills and keep it financially sustainable, but at the same time, also using-- professionalizing the ambulance service, so getting the equipment that many other ambulance services didn't have, so oxygen, backboards, sometimes making them themselves, so being innovative and creative about that. And that was a big part of it.

And then he just hustled. It sounds like John Perkins really hustled and driven by his passion for this to make it work. But he expanded, too. So he started in Rochester, and then he expanded through southern Minnesota and Duluth. And all throughout that. There was, I think, a consistent revenue base through that patient transport, as well as doing emergency runs as well.

CATHY WURZER: Hmm. So I'm wondering, since this-- of course, you have an exhibit about this at the History Center, what any interesting artifacts that you have?

WAYNE GANNAWAY: Yeah. I think one of my favorite series of artifacts there are the defibrillators. It's amazing. And it's a lot like computers in general. They start out like giant-- like, giant pieces of equipment. And as you go through the years, the defibrillators become smaller. They become easier to use, almost dummy proof, to where we are today. We have a defibrillator in our lobby that even I could use.

And if you compare them to what's in the exhibit, it's astounding. And talking to some physicians and paramedics today, you'll find that they're small enough to fit in your pocket, believe it or not.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah. Wow. Oh, my goodness. So you've got some artifacts. And I'm wondering about tonight's panel discussion. You're going to moderate this event tonight at the Olmsted County History Center. What do you want to focus on?

WAYNE GANNAWAY: Well, I really want to focus on the ambulance service in rural Minnesota, because county historical societies throughout the state serve a lot of rural folks. I mean, most of our counties are rural and the county historical societies serve them. And so I want this message-- or I want this to be an opportunity to get that message out, that many Minnesotans live in what we call "ambulance deserts," where the service is 25 minutes or more away from them.

And so I want to get that word out, but also then hear from the paramedics about what's changed from Gold Cross in the heyday. And it's pretty interesting some of the things that have changed. One of the things mentioned with the paramedics that I've spoken to is they have to wear body armor these days, when back then, it really wasn't an issue for the EMTs or the paramedics. But as we know today, it's a different environment.

CATHY WURZER: Very much so. Yes, in some instances, absolutely. The ambulance desert, that fact that you just said, that some people can wait 25 minutes or more in some-- I mean, that's like a difference between life and death in many instances.

WAYNE GANNAWAY: Exactly. And that is really the challenge. And I believe the legislature passed an initial bill earlier this year to try and begin to address it. And I think there's a lot more work to be done. One thing that's-- one of the panelists is the head of the Eyota Ambulance Service, which is all volunteer. And they are having an incredible challenge in recruiting and retaining volunteers.

And you can imagine most nonprofits, including the History Center, it's a struggle to recruit volunteers because people just aren't as able to do that as they were in the past, especially with a tight job market. Yeah. So these are the issues that I want folks to become aware of.

CATHY WURZER: Well, I appreciate your time, Wayne. I wish you well tonight. I hope it's a well-attended event. Thank you so much.

WAYNE GANNAWAY: Thank you, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Wayne Gannaway is the Executive Director of the History Center of Olmsted county that's based in Rochester.