Ambulance ‘strike teams’ coming to relieve Kansas City region hospitals stretched by COVID

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is helping Missouri send ambulances to the Kansas City region for the next month to move patients from strained local hospitals, as the delta variant-fueled COVID-19 surge continues unchecked across the state.

Gov. Mike Parson announced Friday the state will get aid from FEMA in the form of 30 ambulances and 60 medical personnel, to be stationed as early as Saturday across the state. They will operate in Missouri at least through Sept. 5.

At least one of the “ambulance strike teams” is positioned specifically in the Kansas City region, though it was not immediately clear how many ambulances and staff that entailed.

New cases in the Kansas City metropolitan area climbed above 1,000 this week for the first time since early January.

Thirteen vehicles will be in southwest Missouri, the epicenter of the recent surge, replacing staff and 10 ambulances that Arkansas sent last month. Those teams have taken 223 patients to hospitals as far as four hours away to relieve local hospital capacity, Parson said.

“The ambulance strike teams we positioned in Springfield have been extremely effective in helping save lives and ease the pressure on local hospitals,” he said in a news release. “These 30 new ambulance teams triple our transport capacity and expand it to the entire state, as needed.”

The state also is operating a treatment center in Springfield to give high-risk COVID patients antibody infusions that could help them avoid hospitalization.

Last month, Springfield and Greene County officials withdrew a request for state aid to start a field hospital to free up beds for more critically ill COVID patients. They said local hospitals increased their own capacities while awaiting the state’s response.

Case rates in Greene County are falling from mid-July, and hospitalizations appear to be on the decline but remain above last winter’s peaks. Officials there say they are concerned by the rising rate of cases in children, which doubled from June to July.

Missouri’s vaccination rate hovers about 41%. There is one week left for Missourians to enter the state’s vaccine lottery program that would allow 900 residents who get at least one shot to win $10,000.

The state has seen 358,000 sign up so far.

This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 12:35 PM.