Otter Tail, Grant Counties Get State Grant for Faster ALS
On Nov. 5 the Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners approved a grant agreement with the Minnesota EMS Regulatory Board to launch a two‑county pilot aimed at speeding advanced‑life‑support response in rural areas. Up to three rapid‑response units will work alongside local ambulance services, with an anticipated early‑2025 start and authorization through June 2027.
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The Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners voted Nov. 5 to accept a grant agreement with the Minnesota EMS Regulatory Board to fund a two‑county emergency medical services pilot intended to shorten time to advanced‑life‑support (ALS) care in rural communities. The pilot will cover Otter Tail and neighboring Grant County and could deploy as many as three rapid‑response units to augment existing ambulance coverage.
Under the agreement, the rapid‑response units will operate in coordination with a network of local providers, including Henning Ambulance, Parkers Prairie Ambulance, Perham Area EMS, Ringdahl EMS (OTC), and Ashby, Hoffman and Lake Region Ambulance–Elbow Lake (Grant). Officials expect the pilot to launch in early 2025 and have authorization through June 2027, giving state and local agencies time to measure effectiveness and decide whether to continue or expand the program.
County leaders framed the pilot as a targeted effort to bring advanced‑level care to patients more quickly in areas where long distances and dispersed populations can delay ALS arrival. Rapid‑response units are designed to get advanced clinicians and critical equipment to the scene faster than standard transport ambulances, then coordinate with transporting crews for hospital transfer as needed. The grant arrangement provides state support for the trial period, allowing partners to pilot staffing models, dispatch protocols and interoperability across jurisdictions without committing to permanent service expansion at the outset.
For Otter Tail County residents, the change could be significant during life‑threatening events such as cardiac arrest, severe trauma or respiratory failure, when every minute matters. Rural parts of the county, including lake districts and widely spaced townships, often face longer response intervals than urban centers. The pilot seeks to reduce those intervals by placing additional ALS capability closer to communities that rely heavily on volunteer and small career ambulance services.
The project will require coordination among county dispatch centers, participating ambulance services and the Minnesota EMS Regulatory Board to determine unit placement, call triage criteria and staffing arrangements. Because the authorization runs through mid‑2027, the pilot will include evaluation metrics to assess whether rapid‑response units improve clinical outcomes, response times and system efficiency. If the data show clear benefits, county officials could pursue longer‑term funding or a broader rollout; if not, the pilot structure allows for adjustment or cessation without a permanent reorganization of services.
Residents should see more details as agencies finalize operational plans in the months before the planned early‑2025 launch. The pilot represents a state‑supported experiment in adapting emergency medical coverage to the realities of rural Minnesota, balancing resource constraints with the goal of faster, more equitable access to advanced care.
