Jones loses employment during pandemic

Jones loses employment during pandemic

Olney Hamilton Hospital terminates Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Director and Emergency Response Coordinator Chuck Jones. Jones has been working at the Hospital since July 2019, and he feels his termination was unjust. He said that he spent much of his time trying to improve the Emergency Services’ reputation and improve the quality of each emergency response.

Jones believes that his loss of employment was due to certain events that occurred since his time in Olney, which were out of his control. He expresses that the most important thing to him is doing his job to the best of his ability. Jones’ main goal was to ensure compliance with the rules and regulations concerning emergency services, and the proper procedures were not followed in some instances and still need correcting; stating that they were out of compliance in some areas with guidelines and state level regulations.

In Jones’ 26 years of work experience, he feels as though he was unable to make much change, which led to his termination because he was not given the control he needed. He felt as if his hands were tied at times—especially where discipline was concerned. Jones maintains, “My end goal is to give the community everything above and beyond what they could imagine expecting from an EMS service. I want them to know when they call 911-- they know our faces, and they know whenever they get this crew, they’re going to get the best care [possible].”

Eventually, Jones became the Vice President of the emergency services District Board 2, which was over the EMS contracting with the care flight in Hill County. Through his work there, Hill County saw positive results, and Jones helped resolve many issues.

Jones and his wife Kayla reside in Olney. “I moved to Olney from Seymour originally because I noticed that while I was working the 48/72 hour shifts, I wasn’t able to get all of my work accomplished, and the director’s position is very rarely what they call a working director-- its typically someone that works Monday through Friday 8-5. In Olney, I had that opportunity,” said Jones.

Jones lived in Seymour while working in Nuclear Medical Cardiology before moving to Olney with his wife and children. Mr. Jones has three daughters and a son in college. He has been involved with this type of work since he was quite young.

Jones explained, “So, I was exposed at a very young age, and I started learning on state levels different things. And I just progressed from there. Getting my EMT, once I got my EMT I got my fire certification, after I got my fire certification, I got my paramedic certification. Of course, during this time, I’m working my way up through different departments to achieve my goal to finally become triple certified.”

Having to support a family and deal with the ongoing pandemic makes his termination untimely and unjust in his opinion. “I’ve never been disciplined, punished or written up while employed,” said Jones. “I was recently able to secure a 204K grant for a new ambulance, which has never been done before.”