Newton County Ambulance District
By Janet Taylor, Missouri EMS Connection Editorial Advisor
Our service spotlight for this issue features Newton County Ambulance District (NCAD). Newton County is a county-based EMS agency located in southwest Missouri and includes south Joplin, Neosho, Seneca, Granby, Diamond, Fairview, Stella, and Wentworth. The service area borders portions of Kansas and Oklahoma with I-44 and I-49 being the northern border. The service area covers 640 square miles and serves a population of about 60,000 people with an average call volume of 12,500 per year.
NCAD began serving Newton County in 1975 and will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2025. NCAD has expanded to five stations and a training center, maintenance facility, and a business office. With 14 units in their fleet, they have three full-time mechanics that keep the ambulances up-to-date with maintenance and can offer their services to other agencies. They staff seven units every day to meet the needs of their community. Staffing includes 51 paramedics, three AEMTs, and 29 EMTs. Protocols are updated using evidence-based information, RSI, VideoScope, EZIO, and ZOLL X series monitors.
Training and education are provided through their on-site BLS and ALS training sites and their NAEMT training center. Staff are required to be current in BLS, ACLS, and PALS. They also provide AHA and STB programs to area schools and are proud to participate in Crowder College and MSSU EMS education programs.
Chief Rusty Tinney has been with the district since October 1999 and was promoted to chief in May 2000. He has been in EMS as an EMT since 1983 and became a paramedic in 1985. He has experience as a firefighter paramedic with the Joplin Fire Department, a reserve police officer with the Joplin Police Department, a tactical paramedic with the Newton County SRT team, and was the lead flight medic with MedFlight at St John’s Hospital in Joplin for seven years prior to becoming operations training chief for Newton County Ambulance District in 1999.
Training Chief Jeff Prosser has been with the district since 1994. He received his EMT certification in 1990 and paramedic in 1992. Jeff was a shift supervisor for many years and became training and operations chief in May 2000. He is also part of the NCAD critical incident stress management and debriefing team and has experience as a firefighter and tactical medic.
Operations Chief Allen Murray has been with the district since 1992. He received his EMT certification in 1992 and paramedic in 1995 and has experience as a firefighter. Allen was a shift supervisor for many years before becoming operations chief in 2021.
When asked about unique aspects of their agency, Chief Tinney indicated the ambulance district has been deployed on numerous hurricanes along the east coast and gulf coast under the FEMA disaster response plan. They also perform their own in-house remounts like the one pictured below in the center.
Chief Tinney is most proud of the longevity in their program, which is a great asset. He said they have very little turnover, which allows them to have a lot of experienced staff. He is very proud of the staff, the board of directors, paramedics, EMTs, and office staff as they all continue to work very hard in providing the best care and service to the residents of Newton County.
