The San Antonio Metro Area population well exceeds one million people. Some of the outlying areas of COG 18 experience problems with the distances involved in training of personnel. The economic base is primarily farming and ranching with some major petro chemical industry. Vitoria serves as a center for patient tranfers for much of COG 17. Secondary transfers move both towards San Antonio and the Houston metro area.
Some primary issues come to mind when looking at the more rural and frontier areas of the region.
The first is the low economic base which creates a problem with funding. The low population base from which to recruit volunteers. I n many of the smaller communities the EMS systems have already depleted their personnel resources. Those that will participated usually already have and many of those who haven't never will. This makes it very difficult for employers to allow personnel off to go on EMS related calls.