The Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
Copyright 2006 Southeastern Newspapers Corporation
Aiken County, like many communities across the country, is suffering from a serious shortage of paramedics. The county’s Emergency Medical Services division, which calls for 69 positions, has been short an average of 10 people for the past few years.
The situation does not look like it’s going to improve much anytime soon, says EMS Director Phil Clarke, even though the county council recently approved a 5 percent salary hike for key EMS employees. Hopefully, that will slow, if not stop, some of the turnover, because low wages certainly is one reason, though not the only reason, for the shortage.
A fully-trained paramedic now earns about $33,000 a year in Aiken County. That’s not much considering the amount of education it takes to become an emergency medical technician — more than 1,000 hours of training. Most professions requiring that much training pay a lot more.
The importance of paramedics to a community cannot be overestimated. Often they are the first on the scene to deal with life-and-death emergencies — so in addition to the low pay, they also must deal with plenty of stress. And when there’s a shortage of paramedics, those who are working must put in even longer hours and deal with even more stress.
Not only is this tough on the paramedics, it’s also tough on the community they serve. A paramedic shortage translates into longer response times for people whose sicknesses or injuries require prompt medical attention. Sometimes, the delay can be fatal.
The issue, of course, is what can be done about it. Improved pay would help. The medical profession is not likely to relieve its paramedic shortage — or nursing shortage, either, for that matter — until it starts paying these professions better: a salary standard that’s commensurate with their training.
Paramedic veterans say that some of the training requirements may be more than is necessary to do the job. Varying degrees of medical expertise need to be available, but not all paramedics need the maximum training to be effective.
There is something specific Aiken County could do that might relieve some of its paramedic shortage. Its EMS handles only emergency calls, which can’t be refused and for which it sometimes doesn’t get paid. The privately owned Gold Cross EMS company in Columbia and Richmond counties is not confined to emergency calls; it can perform services for which it gets paid by insurance, such as transporting elderly or disabled patients to their doctor’s offices. That allows Gold Cross to offer higher salaries and keep its paramedic shortage to a minimum.
But the bottom line is that long-term shortages in the medical field can only be cured by improved wages, better working conditions and more public recognition of a difficult job done well.