This week’s Hometown Public Servant is Taylor Strange. A native of Emanuel County, Strange serves the local community as a part-time Emanuel County EMS employee on top of working full time hours as the clinical care coordinator for Porter Medical Clinic. She has dedicated six years of her life working with Emanuel Medical Center and one year at her current capacity at Porter Medical Clinic. When asked what prompted her to stay local rather than departing from Emanuel County to live her life elsewhere, Strange’s answer was simple – “This is where I grew up. This is my home and I would rather serve my local community with familiar faces.”
Strange entered the medical workforce as a CNA at PruittHealth during the summer of 2010 . At that time, she was attending school to pursue a degree as a medical assistant. During the fall months of 2015, she became an employee with Swainsboro Healthcare. Strange obtained her EMT license while working at the healthcare setting and began working part-time with Emanuel County EMS. She eventually began full-time hours with EMS in February 2019 but decided to go back to part-time hours after taking her full time role at Porter Medical Clinic in March 2020.
Strange credits the spark of interest to serve the local community to a person rather than a situation. The person being a fellow-coworker and life-long role model, Nicky Drake.
“In my case, it isn’t a matter of what sparked my interest - it’s who sparked my interest. When I was a kid, I always watched Nicky Drake, the assistant director for EMS, work hard and care for every patient he came in contact with no matter what the nature of the call was. I knew from the time I was a kid that emergency medicine would be my calling. From the time I decided to go into EMS, Nicky has supported me from day one. He has pushed me to be the best that I can be and never gave up on me no matter how many times I fussed at him or cried. He will never know how thankful I am for him! I love my current position at Porter Medical Clinic, but EMS will always be my heart,” Strange commented.
As clinical care coordinator, Strange is responsible for managing chronic care patients all while focusing on the Medicare population. She ensures all Medicare patients come in annually for wellness checks and that her patients have annual screening test and procedures performed. For chronic care patients, Strange makes monthly phone calls to check in on them and to assist with any questions or concerns they may have.
“I pretty much make sure that I am a patient advocate for all of our patients but focusing on our Medicare patients. What I enjoy most about my current job at Porter Medical is I get to talk to patients one on one and learn more about them. I get to just talk to them daily on their medical history, or current issues they have going on, or if they just need a listening ear,” she further explained.
In order to maintain her license and job statuses, Strange is required to complete a certain amount of continued education unit hours on a two-year basis. Training requirement topics and hours vary and must all be completed to ensure she is up to date on all certifications and licensures.
“I have completed some Medicare classes to become better educated in this area. I have also taken many emergency classes such as trauma, burn, pediatric/geriatric, extrication, and tactical for EMS. All of the education courses for EMS have helped in many other ways than just working EMS,” Strange commented.
Strange is a mother of two, Olivia and Abel, and has a third bundle of joy on the way. Her children are her life that all her hobbies revolve around.
“My children keep me busy enough on a daily basis. I work Porter Medical full time, but I pick up EMS shifts as much as I can, that is another hobby of mine. My significant other, Justin, is also a public safety worker. He works with the Swainsboro Fire Department. I guess you can say public safety is big in our household,” Strange stated.
In closing, Strange relays the following public comments to those she serves:
“As far as Porter Medical Clinic, work with us. There have been so many changes in the last year that everyone has had to adapt to and we try our best every day to make sure that we keep not only ourselves safe but our patients also.
With EMS, this line of work isn’t easy. We do things and see things that the normal person may not be able to handle. We act as a patient advocate, we care for your loved ones while ours are at home, and although it may not be exactly how you think it should be, we try our best each and every time, just like it is our family we are working on. So next time you see a public safety worker, a thank you can go a long way in our line of work.”
STRANGE
