Highland County is 416 square miles of rugged mountainous terrain with a ridge and valley topography.  A location five miles away can easily be a thirty-minute drive.  

Our volunteer rescue squad has developed a fleet of Quick Response Vehicles parked at a volunteer home.   Each unit has the same equipment as an ambulance, with the exception of a stretcher.  These units, all equipped with a drug box, respond locally while an ambulance responds from a more distant central location.

A trained volunteer arriving quickly on scene can provide lifesaving/stabilizing medications...IF THEY HAVE A DRUG BOX IN THE UNIT.  Removing the drug box from our QRV units will completely undo years of hard work creating a best result Emergency Services System and will result in a significantly elevated risk of death, serious injury, or complications for our local residents and visitors.  This is unacceptable.

One size does not fit all.  We are well over an hour to the nearest suitable hospital.  Our QRV fleet allows our providers to stabilize a patient earlier in the process while the ambulance is on the way.

Our county has a small population and cannot afford to fund and staff Emergency Services stations throughout the county.  Instead, we utilize volunteers and FULLY EQUIPPED QRV's to produce good outcomes for our residents.