672 NORTHERN KENTUCKY FUND centers; emergency rooms in local hospitals were expanded with new and better equipment; and larger hospitals were upgraded to trauma centers where the best and highest level of care, including surgery, was made available at all times. Emergency medicine became a specialty for doctors as emergency skills were introduced into the curricula of medical schools. As advances in emergency care generally have progressed throughout the nation, Northern Kentucky has also experienced significant advances in its local care and training. It is now possible for a civilian injured in a traffic accident to be stabilized and transported to a trauma/surgical center within minutes while also receiving advanced medical care en route. The mobile and air ambulances used are referred to as emergency rooms on wheels (or wings). The goal is to have the injured person at a trauma center within a half hour, ready for surgery or other care. The Northern Kentucky Emergency Medical Ser vices Company (NKEMS) was formed in 1977, through a grant from the DOT, to assist the basic life support units in the counties of Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, and Pendleton. Many members of the local units have received the initial training of 120 hours for emergency medical technician (EMT) certification, which is issued and monitored by the State Medical Board. EMTs must continually update their training in order to maintain certification. The federal funds enabled NKEMS to expand the training programs throughout the region. In 1979 paramedic ser vices became available in Northern Kentucky. A certified paramedic, who must receive 1,200 hours of initial training, is able to provide more advanced medical treatment than an EMT can; for example, a paramedic can administer medications and conduct advanced heart monitoring. Like EMTs, paramedics undergo continual monitoring and receive updated training to maintain certification. Most of the Northern Kentucky region is served by volunteer life-squad departments. Although members of these volunteer departments are quite capable, they generally cannot spend the time required to become paramedics. Thus, a system has been developed whereby, in an emergency, NKEMS paramedics respond in a separate car to meet the local life squad, who generally arrive at the scene first. The EMTs determine whether paramedics are needed, and if so, they are advised to continue their response trip while the local unit completes the on-the-scene care. Once paramedics arrive or, to save precious response time, join the EMT squad en route to a hospital, they immediately begin more advanced care inside the ambulance. NKEMS also provides ambulances to handle the increasing volume of nonemergency transport ser vices to and from medical facilities, freeing local units for emergencies. The response system, called a two-tiered system, has proven quite effective and has enabled local counties to provide advanced levels of care. NKEMS provided the two-tiered paramedic services until 1999. Then TransCare, a joint nonprofit venture of St. Elizabeth and St. Luke hospitals, was
incorporated and purchased these ser vice operations from NKEMS. The two-tiered system continued until 2004, when operating expenses exceeded revenues. Several fire departments had begun providing their own paramedics, and insurance and government agencies had reduced their reimbursements for such ser vices. TransCare requested additional funding, without which its ser vices would have to be cut. The counties, cities, and fire departments began studies to determine how they could assist with funding TransCare or provide tax-assisted transportation ser vices of their own. Several of the larger cities started offering their own ser vices. Other cities contracted to use transportation ser vices provided by neighboring cities. These developments undercut TransCare’s efforts to obtain taxsupported funding, and the initiative to secure it began to falter. The remaining contracts with TransCare were extended to give more time to find a satisfactory solution, which was found and in place by July 2005. The history of ambulance ser vices in the various cities within the region has varied greatly. The city of Maysville had no ambulance until 1957, and the one obtained then was an army surplus vehicle. In Covington, in 1903 a horse-drawn vehicle with gaping holes in its panels served as the ambulance; often patients were hauled in it to a hospital five miles away on the Covington and Lexington Turnpike Later, if the patient had died, the same vehicle was used to transport the body to the cemetery. By 1907 Covington officials believed they had solved their ambulance problems with a new vehicle they had acquired. They bragged, “No city anywhere has an ambulance for contagious diseases as fine as ours. . . . Not even Cincinnati or Louisville can boast its equal.” By 1921, Jesse Sheets, superintendent of the Covington police department’s patrol system, was demonstrating his new combination police patrol wagon–ambulance. It could be converted from one function to the other in 30 seconds. Newport had the problem that ambulance operators on their way to Speers Hospital (see Speers Memorial Hospital) in Dayton were driving wildly through the city’s West End, a lawless part of town where citizens were regularly injured in scrapes and drinking brawls. Newport wanted to take these victims of fights to the much closer hospitals in Covington, but officials in Covington refused. While cities such as Newport sometimes bragged about the success rates of their life-saving crews, the statistics told a different tale. On the ambulance runs made during the first half of the 1930s, Newport reported saving 14 lives while 10 people died either en route or after arriving at the hospital. In 1940 Newport obtained a modern ambulance for its Newport Life Saving Squad, and the police squad car they had been using as an ambulance, operated by policemen with little or no medical training, was at last retired . “Can Transform Police Auto into Ambulance in 30 Seconds,” KTS, December 23, 1921, 35. “Dangerous Ambulances,” KP, May 20, 1931, 4. “Maysville May Get Ambulance,” KTS, January 17, 1957, 8A.
“New Ambulance Accepted by City,” KP, February 27, 1907, 2. “Newport Life Squad Will Get Ambulance,” KP, March 19, 1940, 1. “Sketch of Ambulance Used to Take Patients to Covington Branch Hospital on Lexington Pike,” KP, January 3, 1903, 1. “Squad Save 14 Lives,” KP, July 4, 1930, 8.
Robert Joseph Williams
NORTHERN KENTUCKY FUND. The Northern Kentucky Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation (GCF) derived from Forward Quest, an organization formed to implement a community planning effort for Northern Kentucky. One of its goals was to establish a charitable fund for the community. The Northern Kentucky Fund was established in June 1998 with more than $1 million in challenge grants from 10 major donors, including a $100,000 grant from GCF. The fund provides resources to nonprofit organizations located in or primarily serving Northern Kentucky. An advisory board made up of 15 volunteers oversees its development and promotion, with support from GCF staff. The Northern Kentucky Fund and dozens of other named funds established to support the needs of the Northern Kentucky community make up the Northern Kentucky Family of Funds. “The Fund is important for the long-term viability of the region. We need access to funds to support the community’s needs,” said Mike Hammons, president of Forward Quest. “We came up with the goal of putting a permanent fund in place so resources would be available over the long-term.” Community pride for the region has driven the success of the fund’s short history. Judy Clabes, its first chair, tapped this philanthropic spirit in 1999 with the Millennium Gift Campaign. Sponsored by the Kentucky Post, the campaign invited Northern Kentuckians to contribute their final hour of pay of the millennium. Gifts ranged from $5 to $10,000, bringing the total value of the Northern Kentucky Fund to $3,861,507 by December 2000. “It was a great way to tell ordinary people they count,” Clabes remembered. “You don’t need to be a millionaire to be a philanthropist.” In 2003 the fund reached its fift h anniversary; in the same year GCF marked its 40th year. In celebration, it was announced that GCF would match all unrestricted contributions (up to $40,000) to the Northern Kentucky Fund for one year. The fund’s leadership raised the bar, and more than $200,000 was raised. The Advisory Board has been creative with the fund’s development. In 2004 an annual award for Northern Kentucky philanthropists was launched. The Devou Cup, named after William Devou, was first awarded to Ralph and Irmaleen Drees (see Ralph Drees). R. C. Durr was honored in 2005, and Ralph Haile and his late wife Carol Ann Haile were the 2006 recipients. The board announced the Haile Challenge in 2005. It challenges contributors to match Ralph Haile’s annual $150,000 gift. The board has also reached out to future community leaders. Each year, the outgoing president of Legacy, an organization for young