Blog | PACT EMS

Jun 11 2018

Lemon-Aid

Local Ambulance Company Supports Young Entrepreneurs with Lemonade Stands

FOR RELEASE June 11, 2018

Media Contact: Kelly Zakariasen, kelly@pactems.org

MOSCOW, Idaho. As the summer season begins, Palouse Area Care & Transport (PACT EMS) is once again launching their Lights on Lemonade program for young entrepreneurs. In the spirit of encouraging children to learn about innovation and starting a business, the local ambulance company will advertise—with parent permission—lemonade stands in Moscow and Pullman on their company Facebook page. PACT EMS will also send an ambulance to park nearby with emergency lights flashing to help attract more customers and PACT EMTs and paramedics will purchase some lemonade or other goodies.

PACT EMS owner Troy Zakariasen created Lights on Lemonade after his company was selected as last year’s Entrepreneur of the Palouse Rising Star Award winner.

“It’s a great way to encourage kids to begin exploring entrepreneurship and business at a basic level. The classic neighborhood lemonade stand is the perfect place to start.” Zakariasen said.

Last year the ambulance company visited over a dozen lemonade stands, though not all decided to grant permission to be highlighted on social media.

“My parents taught me to always stop when you see a lemonade stand and buy lemonade or cookies or whatever the kids are selling. It’s incredibly rewarding to see their faces light up and know that you may be planting the seeds for future business owners in our community.”

Participants in this summer’s Lights on Lemonade program will be entered to win one of two cash awards: $100 grand prize or a $50 second prize, to be drawn at random August 31st, 2018. To have a lemonade stand highlighted, young entrepreneurs can contact the ambulance company through their Facebook page, email contact@pactems.org, or call 855-722-8367.

PACT EMS is a private Critical Care ambulance company based in Moscow, Idaho serving regional hospitals by providing both emergent and non-emergent ambulance transports.

Apr 11 2017

Area Community Supports Local Volunteers in a BIG Way

This past weekend on April 8th, hundreds of people packed the Kendrick High School in support of their local EMS volunteers. The event was the annual J-K Ambulance Sausage Feed and Fundraiser; the goal, to raise additional funds in order to purchase new and updated equipment critical to the saving of lives of local community members.

Eager supporters filled the tables and overflowed into the bleachers for the dinner and auction, finishing off delicious homemade pies and eyeing items up for bid. The event raised thousands of dollars for this small town ambulance company, proving it isn’t the size of the community that counts, but the size of the heart.

Congratulations to J-K Ambulance and the citizens of Juliaetta and Kendrick on an outstanding fundraising event!

Apr 01 2014

KLEW News features PACT EMS

We would like to thank Rachel Dubrovin and the rest of the KLEW news team for featuring PACT EMS. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to spread the word about the many things PACT EMS is doing to help the community. You can watch the full story here:

Do you have questions or suggestions about how PACT EMS can further help the community? Please feel free to c ontact us. We love hearing from you.

Mar 14 2014

PACT EMS is hiring!

PACT EMS, a private ambulance service focusing on non-emergent medical transportation, is looking for local EMTs who want to help their community by acting as a driver, provider, or assistant on critical care transports.

We offer competitive pay and flexible hours, and we encourage our team members to serve in their local EMS volunteer agency.

If you think you’re up to the task, we would love to hear from you! Fill out our e mployment opportunities form or by email: jobs[at]pactems-org.nwtd.staging.wpengine.com.

Feb 24 2014

Open letter to Moscow Fire Chief Ed Button

On February 20, 2014, Troy Zakariasen, co-owner of PACT EMS, delivered a letter to the office of Fire Chief Ed Button of the Moscow Volunteer Fire Department. The letter is open and to be shared with the entire community. The letter ran in the February 21st edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, and was also delivered to Mayor Lambert, the Moscow City Council, and posted throughout the community. The letter reads:

Fire Chief Button,

My name is Troy Zakariasen and I am part owner of Palouse Area Care and Transport (PACT EMS), a new ambulance service based here in Moscow. We are proud to operate in a community that has a volunteer fire department with over 120 years of history and tradition providing services for the City of Moscow and Latah County. On behalf of myself and the partners and employees of PACT EMS, we would like to congratulate you and the volunteers on your service maintaining your Class 3 Fire Protection Rating and Advanced Life Support (ALS) EMS Agency license. Both of these are commendable, and the fact that your agency is comprised of volunteers is remarkably outstanding.

As PACT EMS begins to serve this community, I would like to explain our origins and our intentions.

In 2012, while running as a paramedic with MVFD, I observed that Gritman Medical Center had difficulty—sometimes waiting as many as twelve hours—securing an ambulance and crew for interfacility transfers, that is, transferring a patient from Gritman to a specialty care facility, usually out of area. If and when transport did arrive, it would still take an additional two hours of transport to get the patient into the care required. Another observation during the eighteen months I volunteered with MVFD was the problem of retaining paramedics. The trend remains that these skilled and trained volunteers use their knowledge to seek paid careers elsewhere, leaving a void in the protection and services provided to this community … our community.

Seeing these critical needs, my partners and I have worked to find a resolution that benefits everyone, including your department. In establishing a private ambulance service with compensated personnel, we are able to provide timely transport for members of this community to specialized care facilities and retain paramedics in the area. The paramedics and EMT-Bs employed by PACT EMS are encouraged to serve as volunteers with Moscow Volunteer Fire Department and surrounding fire/EMS agencies, so that our local communities can benefit from quality emergent medical care. At the same time, the MVFD is able to continue the tradition of being an organization composed of volunteers, maintaining the legacy of being the state’s sole volunteer organization with an ALS designation.

We at PACT EMS recognize that our presence may cause some uncertainty in the ranks of MVFD. Emotions can run high, leading to confusion and hasty reactions based on hearsay, conjecture, and assumptions—not the facts.

The facts are that PACT EMS is here to provide reliable care to patients requiring transport to specialty care facilities, as well as offer supplemental income to local emergency medical practitioners through gainful employment. We will strive and continue to support MVFD in their endeavor to deliver outstanding emergent medical care. We look forward to serving alongside the MVFD, offering area citizens the best and most advanced emergency medical care available.

Chief Button, we invite you to meet with us personally to collaborate and address how PACT EMS can work together with the Moscow Volunteer Fire Department to best serve our local Moscow community and greater Latah County.

Sincerely,

Troy Zakariasen
PACT EMS