Jenna Rosky is Madison County’s EMS coordinator, a title she holds dear.

“When I was 16, I joined the fire department and I decided I wanted to help people for the rest of my life,” said Rosky.

It’s an exciting time to work in emergency services in Madison County as the department has had several upgrades and additions recently, including their new Faster Advanced Life Support fly cars.

“We have ALS equipment here for advanced life support procedures. We also have BLS equipment for just those minor cuts, bruises, sprains and strains. We have oxygen to provide people who are having any kind of respiratory distress some oxygen, and then we have a brand new ZOLL X Series Advanced Cardiac Monitor,” said Rosky.

The county has two scheduled cars. They’re staffed with an EMT and paramedic to handle low acuity 911 calls. They care for patients before an ambulance arrives, helping relieve the pressure put on ambulance crews.

“In 2016, Madison County did an EMS study throughout the county. It showed that there was an extra need for a service throughout the county to provide more care for the entire county,” said Rosky. “With the collaboration of Emergency Management, we decided that putting the Fly Car on the road would be at least a helpful thing for all the ambulance agencies around us.”

In addition to the two scheduled cars, Rosky and the director of the Madison County Office of Emergency Management, have trucks that are fly cars, too. They are equipped differently.

“I’ve responded to calls in my vehicle. The fly car is a scheduled vehicle that’s on the road, and then Dan can use his truck on-scene,” Rosky said.

Rosky said the hope is to one day have the authority to perform community paramedicine, which would allow fly car staff to connect a patient with a doctor virtually, providing prescription refills and schedule follow-up visits among other things, but Rosky said that’s up to political leaders.

“Hopefully, if all goes well in the Senate and the Assembly, then we can get some community paramedicine going up here in New York state. So that would be very exciting for us,” said Rosky.

In addition to the new vehicles and an upgraded space, the county has a new Emergency Operations Center where multiple department members can work together during an emergency.

“We put in new monitor, microphones, speakers and cameras. Cameras are around the room so we can do things virtually and people can work from home, and we can manage any emergency out of this room,” said Rosky.

The fly cars cover all 661 square miles of Madison County.