RIPLEY – Steve McClure is a man who has come full circle. After a lifetime of work in emergency services, the former Cottageville teen who used to fight fires with his father has returned to Jackson County as the new County Director of Emergency Medical Services.
Born and raised in Cottageville, McClure first got involved in emergency services with the Cottageville Volunteer Fire Department at the age of 14. He credited his father, Eugene, also with the Cottageville VFD, as an inspiration to get involved.
“He’s the reason I got into it,” he said. “I tried to do things he did.”
In addition to his father, McClure said a lot of the people he knew in Cottageville influenced him early on.
“I admired a lot of those guys,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys in the county that I looked to back then who really helped me.”
McClure graduated from Ravenswood High School in 1976 and went on to attend West Virginia Univeristy. He received an Emergency Medical Technician license in 1977 and became a licensed paramedic in 1978.
When Jackson County established its first paid EMS crews in Ravenswood, McClure was on one of the first teams to work the area. He worked as a paid paramedic in Jackson County until February of 1983, when he joined the Charleston Fire Department.
McClure ascended through the ranks in Charleston, and in 2004 he was named Chief of Operations for the organization. In that role, he oversaw the budget and daily operations of both the Fire Suppression and EMS units and was responsible for over 200 employees. (Since 1986, Charleston has been both a Fire and EMS provider.)
McClure retired from the Charleston Fire Department in September; and when he heard of an opening in Jackson County, he knew it would be too good to pass up.
“I felt like I was too young to retire from everything,” he said. “I felt like it’d be a good opportunity to get back into the county and county operations…to remain involved and make a difference.”
McClure was also glad to return to the place where he first got his start. “This was an opportunity to come home and come full circle – I’m back where I started,” he said.
McClure took over as EMS Director on October 1, filling the position of Lori Pierson, who had moved on to take a new position.
McClure has spent the last few weeks getting to know staff and is working on getting settled in. He credited Pierson for the excellent people and programs in place in the county.
“Lori’s left the service in good shape with excellent personnel,” he said. “They’re some of the best in the business. They’re motivated and their morale seems high.” He added, “Jackson County is right up there among the leaders in the provision of advanced medical services.”
McClure said one of his top priorities as EMS Director is to create a sense of ownership between the people of the county and the ambulance service.
“My biggest thing is I want to make sure the people know that this is their ambulance service,” he said. “The people of Jackson County pay for this ambulance service. I want to develop a sense of ownership with the people and our ambulance service so they know it is their ambulance service.” He added, “It’s their system; they pay for it. We don’t bill for emergency calls, and that’s because of the levy.”
McClure said that he’s tried to model a lot of things from some of the best practices he’s seen implemented. He said he’s looked to well-respected Phoenix Fire Chief Alan Brunacini for inspiration in emergency services.
“I’m one very strongly of a mindset that we’re providing a customer service – the people are our customers,” McClure said.
One new technology McClure has said he would like to implement is the ability to transmit EKG readings to the hospital via cell phone, so that doctors can already be evaluating a patient’s condition before they arrive.
“It can save valuable time,” he said. “One of the biggest things is average transport time. In Charleston, it was about five minutes. Here, it takes about 20 to 25 minutes. This can make a big difference and give a better patient profile before we get to the ER.”
McClure said that they used the system in Charleston and that sometimes it meant transporting a patient directly to a waiting catheterization lab instead of to the emergency room first, saving time and lives.
McClure also said he wants to emphasize territory among his EMS workers.
“I’m a real strong proponent of knowing the territory and making sure everyone knows the territory,” he said, “and for the most part, they do.”
He has also said that he wants to maintain an open-door policy with his office, so that anyone with questions or concerns can approach him directly and he can fix it if there’s a problem. Also, he wants to make sure that EMS personnel know the people of their area and has thought about doing things, such as health fairs, so that the people can come to know their EMS crews.
McClure resides in Jackson County with his wife of 30 years, Leshia (Kurwood). They have two children: Ashley, 26, who is currently pursuing a career in the U.S. Army, and Joshua, 24, who is a case manager at Westbrook Psychological Services in Parkersburg.
McClure is looking forward to the opportunity to serving Jackson County and said he’s fortunate for the work he’s done in emergency services.
Now, the man who once dreamed of being a firefighter like his father, says he is grateful to come back home and continue the work to which he’s devoted his entire life.
“There’s not a lot of people who can say they are actually doing what they wanted to do when they grew up,” he said, “but I am.”
