JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — Dozens of employees at New Chapel EMS in Clark County are looking for new jobs, as the department has announced a significant downsize effective Sept. 1.
"We wanted it to succeed, we did, all of us did," Lt. Jordan Boulard said. She's worked at New Chapel since September 2021. "I don't think anybody who has stayed there this long, through this entire mess, wanted to see it fail."
New Chapel EMS is the largest, most profitable remaining agency that was started by disgraced former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel. Noel is facing 31 felonies, and is being sued by the Indiana Attorney General for years of alleged theft and misconduct. New Chapel EMS had off-and-on service in Clark County starting in 2007, according to former employees, but had full-county coverage in both Clark and Floyd counties since at least 2020.
"I think Jamey, or whoever initially set it up, set it up for failure by taking all these contracts at once, without having the staff," Lt. Crystal Blevins said, who's worked at New Chapel for two years.
It's been a little over one year since Indiana State Police raided Noel's house for the first time, which notified the public that an investigation might be going on. Noel was officially arrested in November, and since then details have been coming out about his alleged thefts.
Since the start of 2024, Boulard and Blevins have seen public animosity build against New Chapel EMS, for its association to Noel, and struggles with response times.
"With the news and way everything was portrayed, these families, these patients that we were going on, they already had it in their head that they're going to get a bad crew," Boulard said. "They're going to get somebody who's incompetent or, you know, rude or whatever."
WHAS11 has been at public meetings where people said they'd rather Uber to the hospital than wait for New Chapel.
“We got dispatched for a 911, call...and over the PA system, it gives you the additional (info); I believe that caller that day had, like, requested New Chapel not respond, and if New Chapel responded, they were calling the police," Blevins said.
New Chapel EMS had documented issues with response times. In June, the organization had average response times over 17 minutes in two of Clark County's townships. WHAS11 also looked at "jot forms," which are documentations of irregularly bad runs, where multiple runs took over 30 minutes.
The employees said this had nothing to do with their dedication to EMS service, but rather having so few staff that they really couldn't have a "staging strategy."
"We weren’t staging our trucks appropriately. We were taking the run -- as soon as a truck would become available -- no matter where they were, if we had a run holding, that truck was sent," Boulard said. "There were many times that truck could be coming from dropping off a patient at UofL and a New Washington run comes out…that’s a haul."
CEO Matt Owen, who took over the department in February, agrees the staff shortages were an issue, but he feels the maximum level of trucks they were contracted to provide in Clark County, six, was not enough for the whole county.
"We were contracted for far less than what this county needed, and I think that attributes – all of those factors come into play," Owen said.
WHAS11 interviewed Owen at the start of August for his thoughts on what was happening within the department, and the role Jamey Noel played.
While everyone in the department agrees a lot was out of their hands, with the Noel accusations and the nationwide EMS shortage, Boulard and Blevins said Owen has done a few things wrong since taking over.
They said since the announcement was made on Aug. 8 to stop EMS service at the end of the month, Owen has been "distant" or "not around."
"Matt is a good guy. I genuinely feel that way. And I almost wonder if he's kind of not around because maybe he's embarrassed. He --it just didn't work out. But I feel like, unfortunately, that's part of leadership," Blevins said.
Owen agreed he has not been helping staff ambulances since Aug. 8, because Heartland Ambulance Service has been brought in to take a significant portion of their run volume. But he said he has still been at the headquarters at 5820 Utica Pike, working on the downsizing and liquidating of assets.
"Oh, absolutely they're right, and that goes back to what I said before; we have been the sole provider for so long, responsible for answering every call in the county, it necessitated everyone to come out of the office and help staff trucks," Owen said. "But since we had those additional resources brought in by the county, it's not been the same."
Blevins also accused Owen of encouraging young EMTs to work an unhealthy amount, contributing to the bad workplace culture.
“To a point where it was dangerous," Blevins said. "These are 18, 19, 20-year-olds, their first job. They’re being asked to provide coverage with pretty much all command staff saying, ‘Oh no, it’s okay, you can work 72 hours…it’s fine.'"
Owen pushed back on this.
"We've never mandated overtime in the last eight years...There's a distinction between saying, uhm, comparing a normal 40-hour work week to a 72-hour work week in a firehouse," Owen said. "These folks are regularly scheduled 72-hour rotations without any additional overtime."
New Chapel EMS had about 60 employees at the start of the month, and in September, it could go down to as few as eight. Blevins and Boulard are confident they will get new jobs, but think they'll have to take a pay cut.
New Chapel EMS is hoping to stay in business doing non-emergency transports.
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