ARANSAS PASS, Tx — Aransas Pass celebrated the opening of a new Tri-County EMS facility with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday morning.
“We would not have been able to accomplish this goal without all of those donations and contributions towards the project," Tri-County EMS Executive Director Carrie De Leon told KRIS 6 after the ceremony.
The facility has been in the works since 2019, as Tri-County EMS recognized the need for additional resources beyond their single base in Ingleside. “We noticed a trend where we had an increase 2.5-fold in call volume in Aransas Pass versus the city of Ingleside,” De Leon explained. “It doesn't make sense to have one station for three cities when you have a higher call volume in one city versus the other."
Aransas County has been designated a Health Resource Shortage Area by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), with the median response time for the county being 11.47 minutes. This was a key challenge De Leon aimed to address with the new facility. "With faster response times, it provides the best patient care. The sooner we get to somebody who's having a serious medical emergency, the better off they'll be because we can get to them faster," she noted.
Tri-County EMS has spent the past two and a half years applying for grants and seeking donations from the City of Aransas Pass to bring the project to fruition. The facility is already proving its worth, with its first day of operation seeing three calls, each with response times of less than two minutes. “So, we have lower response times and with that, better patient outcomes,” De Leon added.
Looking ahead, Tri-County EMS plans to make adjustments to the building's interior and add a garage to house the facility's ambulances, ensuring they can continue to provide efficient and effective care to the community.
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