From one ambulance to five: Sacred Cross EMS Transforms Emergency Care in Palo Pinto County
Driven by a mission of compassion and integrity, Sacred CrossEMS marks nearly a decade of full-time service and community commitment in Palo Pinto County
Sacred Cross EMS Inc., which is contracted through Palo Pinto County Emergency Services District No. 1, began serving Palo Pinto County with one part-time, paramedic-staffed, mobile intensive-care unit (MICU) ambulance stationed in the county seat of Palo Pinto on Nov. 1, 2017.
Today, Sacred Cross EMS Inc. operates five full-time, paramedic-staffed MICU ambulances within the emergency service district’s boundaries. Those units are stationed at Possum Kingdom Lake, Graford, Gordon (which houses two ambulances) and one just west of Mineral Wells on U.S. Highway 180.
How Did it All Start?
In 2006, during a conversation at the dinner table of a Denton County fire department station, Sacred Cross EMS Inc. owner Charles Hinkle mapped out his dream of establishing and operating a privately owned emergency medical services (EMS) company, and his captain at the station eventually became his business partner. Hinkle recognized a void of quality EMS service providers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and he wanted his EMS company to operate with integrity and compassion while continually challenging the status quo of the EMS industry.
Two years later Sacred Cross EMS Inc. launched, bringing a wealth of knowledge from the municipal- based 911 EMS arena to the private world of non- emergent transport. The niche market it entered badly needed a new ambulance provider that valued honor, integrity, compassion and dignity with as much esteem as that of traditional fire-based EMS systems.
The Sacred Cross EMS motto of “quick, courteous, compassionate care” has been a hallmark of its service since October 2008, when it ran its first call for service, and those elements have served as the foundational and fundamental components of its system. Each patient
receives a quick response, with courteous staff members to treat them, and the service’s compassionate care is on par with that of concierge-type services.
Where is Sacred Cross EMS Now?
After Hinkle bought out his business partner in 2015, Sacred Cross EMS searched to expand its footprint and further revolutionize the EMS culture. Although it was founded on the premise to solely serve Denton County, Sacred Cross EMS quickly expanded operations to the Texas counties of Wise, Montague, Collin and Dallas as well.
On April 1, 2017, Sacred Cross EMS expanded west of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to Breckenridge, Texas (Stephens County) to provide 911 EMS services along with hospital-to-hospital interfacility transfers. Shortly after this expansion, then-Palo Pinto County judge David Nicklaus, along with the ESD’s board of commissioners, requested a meeting with Sacred Cross EMS regarding a need for a full-time, paramedic-staffed EMS service provider. That meeting led to a further expansion of Sacred Cross EMS’s footprint into Palo Pinto County to the outside of the city limits of Mineral Wells and Palo Pinto County ESD No. 2’s service areas. In June 2023, Sacred Cross EMS moved further west to continue providing high-level 911 and interfacility transports to residents and visitors in Coleman County.
Sacred Cross EMS is approaching its 18th anniversary and its eighth year as the full-time, paramedic-staffed 911 EMS service provider to the Palo Pinto County Emergency Services District No. 1. Together with the ESD, Sacred Cross EMS will strive to continue change the dynamic of emergency medical services in Palo Pinto County.
“Palo Pinto County isn’t just a county we serve. It’s our HOME, and the residents are our FAMILY.”-Sacred Cross EMS
