With the transition to city control behind them, stakeholders in the Skagit County ambulance system are looking forward to a technological transition.
Emergency Medical Services Director Jeff Sargent said the county is about a year and a half away from implementing Quickest Route, a program that tracks ambulances in real time and dispatches them to the closest 911 calls.
However, at a stakeholder meeting Thursday, he said his department is relying heavily on the county’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department and it’s running into a bottleneck because there aren’t enough staff members to handle the work.
“We’re putting a ridiculous amount of pressure on a system that’s already pretty taxed,” he said.