With Parkview Warsaw set to open at the end of the year, Tri-County Ambulance Service decided there was a growing need it could meet in Kosciusko County. The Wakarusa-based medical transport company started manning a station near Marsh Supermarket about two weeks ago, with a paramedic and ambulance on-call 24-7, according to representative Jeremy Mast. He said they hope to find a permanent location in Warsaw that better meets their needs, but have no solid plans on expansion beyond that. “Over time, that decision will be based on call volume and the needs of the community. At this point we have no set amount of employees or ambulances in mind,” Mast said Monday. “We’re excited about being in Warsaw and we’re hiring people from Warsaw who are knowledgeable about the community and the area. We’re excited to be down there.” Started in 1999, Tri-County now serves Elkhart, St. Joseph and Marshall counties with a fleet of 18 ambulances. They expect to go on 20,000 calls this year, Mast said. Their ambulances do everything from critical care runs, sometimes to hospitals in Fort Wayne, Indianapolis or Chicago, to transports for seniors, according to Mast. “We work with area nursing homes and hospices to provide care, and we work with Lutheran and Parkview (hospitals) for transport,” he said. The service tries to help with often overtaxed 911 systems, he noted, but Bremen is the only town they contract with. “We’re not trying to do anything more than fill a void,” Mast said. “We don’t go into an area with the intent to take over the 911 contract.” Tri-County has been asked before about expanding into Warsaw but the company didn’t think the need was there before now, he indicated. “There’ve been lots of inquiries about whether we had any interest in moving, both from the general public and inquiries from facilities in the area,” he said. “With the Parkview announcement came the recognition that the Warsaw community is growing, and with that growth comes more needs.”
