Peggy L. Cox began her duties Monday. She replaces long-time ambulance service director Wanda Barrett, who stepped down from the position earlier this year to pursue business interests.

Ms. Cox came to Franklin from Monterey, Ca., but she is no stranger to Kentucky. She grew up in southern Indiana and spent much of her childhood visiting the Hopkinsville area.

“It (Franklin) is a beautiful town,” Ms. Cox said. “I really believe I’m going to enjoy it here.

She has 22 years of experience in emergency medical service (EMS) and applied for the job with the F-S Ambulance Service after learning about it on the Internet.

Her work experience includes stints as emergency medical technician (EMT), paramedic, field training officer, EMS instructor, quality improvement manager, EMS analyst/pre-hospital coordinator and EMS consultant.

“I want to continue the excellent service that they have been providing,” Ms. Cox said. “Any way that we can improve that, we will definitely look at. But what I’ve been finding is that they have already been providing an excellent service, and I want to continue that.”

Ms. Cox described her first impression of the F-S Ambulance Service as being “very positive.”

“First of all, the people are friendly. They are open,” she said. “The service has very nice quarters, very nice ambulances and equipment.”

Ms. Cox said the local ambulance service compares in size to the one she left in San Benito County, Ca.

She said response times for the F-S service appear to be better than those at San Benito County despite response time standards set for the California ambulance service.

Ms. Cox credited the use of First Response vehicles driven by F-S Ambulance Service personnel as helping with the response times. The vehicles allow immediate response to an emergency from any site where the ambulance service member may be, even from their own home, while someone else is en route with an ambulance.

“Its all about getting there as quick as possible and providing basic life support . . . and this is a way for our personnel to get there quicker.”

Ms. Cox added, “It seems to have worked very well. I’ve heard very positive reports about the First Response vehicles.”

There are five First Response vehicles in the local ambulance service fleet to go along with three ambulances. The ambulance service has 19 full- and part-time employees and averages 2,700 to 2,800 runs per year for an average of five to eight runs per day.

When asked what her duties as ambulance service director are, Ms. Cox responded, “My job is to see that the people out there providing the patient care have all the tools that they need to do their job, see that the day-to-day operations run smoothly and that quality patient care happens on every call.”

Finding enough money to continue providing the current level of service is the biggest challenge Ms. Cox sees in health care.

The ambulance service is funded by a special-voted county-wide property tax.

Ms. Cox will be the guest on Sunday afternoon’s edition of WFKN’s Special Report that airs at 12:30 p.m.